JERUSALEM — Israeli forces have killed so many journalists that Reuters has stopped sharing the locations of its teams in the Gaza Strip with the country's military, the international news agency told NBC News.
A Reuters cameraman who regularly operated its live position on the roof of Nasser Hospital was one of five journalists among 22 people killed in an Israeli attack on the facility Monday.
“In the early days of the conflict, Reuters, like other news outlets, shared the locations our teams would be using in an effort to ensure they would not be targeted by the [Israel Defense Forces],“ a spokesperson for the London-based news organization, one of the world’s largest, told NBC News late Wednesday.
That included sharing on “multiple occasions” that its journalists were operating out of Nasser Hospital, where the strikes were caught on video by the Arabic-language channel Al Ghad TV.
“We subsequently desisted from giving precise coordinates of our teams after so many journalists were killed in IDF strikes,” added Reuters, which said it ran a live feed from the site for the last 18 months.
In response to a request for comment on the Reuters statement, the IDF said it had “no further comment beyond the statement that has been put out.” Soon after the incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had been a “tragic mishap.”
In a statement Tuesday, the IDF claimed that an initial inquiry found that troops had identified a camera at the hospital that was being used to observe its troops “in order to direct terrorist activities against them.” It added that “troops operated to remove the threat by striking and dismantling the camera.”
According to five journalists on the ground, there was only one camera — Reuters’ — at the top of the hospital. A senior Hamas official has claimed it did not have a camera in the area.
The Israeli military, which did not provide evidence to substantiate the claims that Hamas ran a camera on the roof of the hospital or address the multiple strikes on the facility, added that an investigation had been ordered into “several gaps” including the “authorization process” before the attack.
According to the internationally recognized Committee to Protect Journalists, 197 journalists have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since it began less than two years ago, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists the CPJ has documented.
More details emerged Thursday about Israel's deadly attack on Nasser Hospital.
Initially, Monday’s pair of deadly Israeli strikes appeared to be a “double tap” attack, in which the same target was hit twice in quick succession. The tactic, military analysts say, is to wait for first responders to race to the scene of the first attack before striking again.
But an NBC News analysis of newly obtained video has found that at least four Israeli munitions were fired at the medical complex.
Following the first Israeli strike on the facility, the video shows two projectiles flying through the air, striking the fourth-floor staircase in quick succession at 10:17 a.m. local time Monday.
Weapons munitions expert and war crimes investigator Chris Cobb Smith, who has analyzed the video, said the projectiles clearly visible are missiles.
The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the newest revelations.
Israel has barred the international media from entering Gaza since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, except for occasional tours chaperoned by the IDF.
On Wednesday, Dr. Mohammed Saqer, director of nursing at Nasser Hospital, said that the IDF should have been aware that the area it was targeting at the hospital was a hub for Palestinian journalists inside the enclave.
“It’s not a secret place. It’s like a clear place, obvious place. Everyone can see this place. Even the Israeli army, by their own drones or by their own cameras, they can see Hussam and other journalists working from the fourth floor. So it’s not a secret,” he said, referring to Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters cameraman killed in the attack.
He added, “The IDF knows our numbers. Yes, sometimes they call us. So if the IDF has any objection about the presence of Hussam and other journalists on the third floor, on the fourth floor, I think they could have contacted us and we could have fixed the issue.
