Journalism in Gaza

The video footage from Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza is horrifying. You can see rescue workers in orange vests tending to Palestinians injured in an Israeli attack. You can also see a journalist with a boom mic. Another wears a camera around his neck and holds a smartphone in his hand, documenting the scene.

And then, for a moment, you can’t see anything at all. The screen goes black as you hear the loud blast of a second strike. Five journalists were among the 20 people killed in the successive strikes on the hospital yesterday morning. In a rare statement of regret, Israel’s prime minister called it a “tragic mishap.”

Nearly 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza, more than in any other conflict or any single place since the Committee to Protect Journalists began keeping track in the 1990s. All but a handful were Palestinians who had to balance their own families’ displacement and hunger with the mission of bearing witness amid grave danger.

Israel barred international correspondents from Gaza when the war began, except for occasional military embeds. So we’re all relying on locals to tell us what happens there.

Today’s newsletter looks at Monday’s strike on the hospital and the particular challenges of reporting from Gaza now.

‘Tragic mishap’