DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza killed four journalists on Monday, including a freelancer who worked for The Associated Press, according to health officials.
Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist, freelanced for the AP since the Gaza war began, as well as other news outlets. The AP said in a statement that it was shocked and saddened to learn of Dagga’s death, along with several other journalists.
In all, 19 people were killed in the strike on Nasser Hospital, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry’s records department.
Dagga, who has a 12-year-old son who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war, frequently based herself at Nasser, most recently reporting on the hospital’s doctors struggling to save children from starvation.
Al Jazeera confirmed that its journalist Mohammed Salam was also among those who were killed in the Nasser strike. Reuters reported that its contractor cameraman Hussam al-Masri was killed and its contractor photographer Hatem Khaled wounded.
The Israeli prime minister’s office and Israeli military declined to comment on the strike.
The Israel-Hamas war has been one of the bloodiest conflicts for media workers, with at least 192 journalists killed in Gaza in the 22-month conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Comparatively, 18 journalists have been killed so far in Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to the CPJ.
Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international media from covering the war. News organizations instead rely largely on Palestinian journalists in Gaza — as well as residents — to show the world what is happening there. Israel often questions the affiliations and biases of Palestinian journalists but doesn’t permit others in.
Many of the journalists working in Gaza are facing the same struggles to find food, for themselves and their families, as the people they are covering.
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Lidman reported from Jerusalem.
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