Why did Israel 'assassinate' Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih?

The Israeli army killed Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih on Tuesday with a suicide drone that struck the third floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, while he was lying in a hospital bed to receive his treatment.

Eslaih, 38, had been seriously injured on 7 April by an Israeli airstrike that hit a tent hosting journalists near the very same hospital. That initial attack cost him two fingers and left him with severe burns. 

He spent over a month recovering in one of the few remaining functioning hospitals in the war-torn southern areas of the coastal enclave.

But on Tuesday morning, while still bedridden and incapacitated, an Israeli suicide drone struck the hospital ward where Eslaih was resting, killing him instantly, according to eyewitnesses and colleagues.

"This was an assassination, plain and simple," Tamer Qishta, a Gaza-based journalist who worked closely with Eslaih, said to The New Arab. 

"He was immobile, lying in a hospital bed, no threat to anyone. The only weapon he ever carried was his camera," Qishta stressed. 

The Israeli army later claimed that Eslaih was affiliated with Hamas and had participated in the group's 7 October 2023 attack, although they provided no evidence to support this accusation. 

His colleagues and family categorically deny this claim by Israel, describing Eslaih as an independent journalist who had no political or militant ties.

Eslaih's killing brought the total number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since the outbreak of its genocidal war to at least 215, according to the Gaza-based government media office. 

'This was not a mistake'

Tamer Qishta was among the first to reach the hospital wing after the Israeli assassination strike. "I couldn't believe they came for him again," Qishta described. "He had already been hit once. I carried him myself from the rubble that time. He survived. So, they came back to finish him."

Photos and video from the scene showed shattered glass, blackened walls, and mangled beds. Journalists believe the strike was carefully timed and aimed explicitly at Eslaih's location in the hospital, which had been widely known.

"This was not a mistake. They knew exactly where he was," insisted Qishta. 

Hassan Eslaih was not a household name outside Gaza, but he was known to hundreds of thousands inside the besieged enclave. 

Through his Telegram channel and various social media pages, Eslaih posted near-daily updates from the frontline, often amplifying survivors' testimonies and capturing the human and destructive toll of Israel's ongoing genocidal war.

"He wasn't just documenting. He was a witness and that made him dangerous not to us, but to those who wanted silence," Samir al-Bouji, another journalist working in Gaza, told TNA.  

For years, Eslaih's videos often included exclusive footage of bomb sites, scenes from overcrowded hospitals, and interviews with displaced families. He frequently reported from places other journalists hesitated to go.

"He showed everything," Fatima al-Ali, a Khan Younis resident who followed his work, told TNA. "He was the eye of the people. He spoke for the wounded, the buried, the disappeared. Israel does not want anyone documenting its crimes in Gaza." 

Islaieh's last post was a few hours before his death was focused on his work. He wrote: "Israeli artillery fire near Khan Younis." 

Who was Hassan Eslaih?

Born in 1986 in Rafah, Eslaih's journey into journalism began in 2009. He worked as an independent content creator with no formal media affiliation, sharing raw footage from conflict zones. Over the years, he developed a reputation for reliability and courage.

"He wasn't affiliated with any political faction," Um al-Abed, Eslaih's wife, said to TNA. "He belonged to the street, to the people. He believed the world needed to see what we are living."

They had four children.

After his injury in April, his wife, Um al-Abed, thought the worst had passed. "He had lost two fingers; he had burns. But he was healing. We even spoke about returning home once the war ended. But the army assassinated him. They did not even give him any chance to survive," she recalled. 

He is now buried in a cemetery near his home in Khan Younis. The funeral procession carried his body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, through Khan Younis's streets; the same streets he passionately documented for many, many years.

Media and human rights organisations strongly condemned the killing by Israel. For its part, the Palestinian journalism syndicate said in a press statement it was "deeply disturbed" by the growing number of journalists killed in Gaza and called for independent investigations into what it described as a "pattern of targeted attacks."

"Eslaih's killing is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," Tahsin al-Astal, the deputy head of the journalists' syndicate, told TNA.

According to the Gaza-based media trainer, Saleh Samir, targeting journalists by Israel is not incidental.

"They're not just bombing homes or shelters any more," Samir remarked. "They are assassinating the storytellers. They're trying to control the narrative by eliminating the narrators."