A prominent Palestinian photojournalist whom the Israeli military accused of being a member of the Hamas terror group operating under journalistic cover was killed in a strike on operatives based in a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip early Tuesday.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it carried out a “targeted strike” on “key Hamas terrorists” who were operating out of a command center at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
“The compound was being used by the terrorists to plan and carry out terror attacks against forces and Israeli civilians,” the military said.
Palestinian media reported multiple casualties in the strike, among them Hassan Eslaiah.
Eslaiah, whose freelance photography was distributed around the world for the Associated Press, entered Israel during the October 7, 2023, massacre, photographing Gazans, some of them armed, as they stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of the population was slaughtered or kidnapped, including the elderly and children as young as nine months old.
He also took a picture of Gazans atop a burning tank next to the destroyed Gaza border fence. A video from the scene posted to social media and since deleted showed him next to the tank, though no press credentials could be seen on him.
Last month, the IDF announced that it had targeted Eslaiah in an airstrike, but he managed to survive. Palestinian media reported that Eslaiah was receiving medical care at Nasser Hospital from injuries sustained in the previous strike when he was killed.
At the time of the previous strike, the IDF and Shin Bet security service said Eslaiah was a member of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade and was operating “under the guise of a journalist and owner of a press company.”
Both the AP and CNN said in November 2023 that they had severed their relationship with Eslaiah after a pro-Israel watchdog raised questions about their work with the photographer and other journalists who entered Israel during the massacre.
His pictures from that day were removed from the Associated Press’s distribution feed, though others remain.
The agency has denied that Eslaiah and other Gazan journalists it worked with who entered Israel during the attack had any advance knowledge of the attack.
The report by the Honest Reporting monitoring group had also raised questions about Eslaiah’s relationship with Hamas, reproducing a since-deleted photo posted by him in 2020 showing the terror group’s chief, Yahya Sinwar, embracing him and kissing his cheek.
Israel has repeatedly alleged that journalists killed in strikes were actually terror operatives who posed as reporters; it maintains that Hamas uses hospitals, schools, shelters, and aid infrastructure as cover for terror activities.
The military said that Nasser Hospital was previously used by Ismail Barhoum, a senior Hamas official, who was killed in a strike on the same building at the medical center in March.
Barhoum was a member of Hamas’s political bureau, chief of the terror group’s finances, and the successor to Issam Da’alis, the de facto prime minister of Gaza, who was also killed in March.
“Senior Hamas terrorist organization officials continue to use the hospital for terror purposes, cynically and cruelly exploiting the civilian population in and around the hospital,” the IDF statement said Tuesday.
The military said it took “numerous steps” to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, including by using a precision munition, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
The strike came following a brief pause in Israeli military activity in the Gaza Strip, which was to enable the release of hostage soldier Staff Sgt. Edan Alexander from Hamas captivity on Monday.
In recent days, the IDF has been gearing up for a planned major offensive in the Gaza Strip, which officials said would be launched if no hostage deal is reached with Hamas by the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region on May 16.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
According to Israeli officials, the planned offensive, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” would see the IDF “conquering” Gaza and retaining the territory; moving the Palestinian civilian population toward the south of the Strip; attacking Hamas; and preventing the terror group from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies.