Airwars assessment
On the night of Thursday, November 2nd 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the house of Palestine TV correspondent Muhammad Abu Hatab in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, killing twelve people, including him and a member of his family.
Abu Hatab delivered daily messages in front of Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Yunis. According to Wafa News, he submitted his last message in front of the hospital an hour before his killing. Laith_ziod reported on ‘Twitter/X’ that Abu Hatab was ‘broadcasting live on the 9 o’clock bulletin from Gaza,’ also noting that the correspondent had planned to go home to rest with his family and check on them, before the strike hit, shortly after he entered the apartment, killing him and 11 more people, including his family members.
Muhammad Salim Abu Hatab (also known as Abu Asim) was 51 years old and was killed alongside his wife, 47-year-old Abeer Ismail (Abu Qouta) Abu Hatab. Their sons 25-year-old Asim Muhammad Abu Hatab and 16-year-old Rashid Muhammad Salim Abu Hatab, and daughter 20-year-old Sajida Muhammad Salim Abu Hatab, were also killed. Muhammed’s brother Islam Abu Hatab, who was 48 years old, was killed alongside his 7-year-old son, Salim Islam Abu Hatab and his four daughters, 9-year-old Sara Islam Salim Abu Hatab, 14-year-old Aya Islam Salim Abu Hatab, 16-year-old Dina Islam Salim Abu Hatab and Rasha Islam Abu Hatab. Rasha’s husband, 26-year-old Fayez Akram Abu Jamea, was also killed in the same incident.
The victims were taken to Nasser Hospital following the incident, according to Akhbar Al Aan. A funeral took place for the journalist the following morning, attended by hundreds of mourners. Images of the funeral shared on Facebook by an account called Palestina Dan Al Aqsha showed Abu Hatabs body, which was wrapped in a white shroud, with a press vest draped over him and a microphone on his chest.
Before his death, Abu Hatab, delivering his final broadcast, said: “Hospital refrigerators are still full of martyrs, and there are still under the rubble citizens and martyrs who were bombed and whose homes are over their heads”.
In a video released by Clash Report on ‘X,’ Salman Al-Bashir, a Palestinian TV reporter, is visibly devastated upon learning about the death of his colleague while reporting live. He is seen removing his helmet and press vest and throwing the vest to the ground. Standing outside Nasser Hospital, where Muhammed Abu Hateb reported, Al-Bashir says “We can’t take it anymore, nothing protects us…not this vest, not this helmet…”.
Multiple sources published a Palestine TV statement on the incident which accused Israel of carrying out a ‘deliberate assassination’ on the journalist and his family.
The New York Times published that, after the incident, the Israeli military said that after a review, it was “not aware of any military activity conducted by our forces in the vicinity of the location in question.”
The New York Times also published images showing the destruction of the apartment, where the alleged strike can be seen to have taken out the entire second floor of the building. Other images showed furniture and children’s clothes and books half buried under rubble.
The Palestinian Ministry of Information acknowledged the killing of journalist Abu Hatab and the members of his family. In a statement, the Ministry recognised the importance of the work that the journalist did during his career.
Where possible, names have been reconciled with published Palestinian Ministry of Health lists. With thanks to journalist Alexandre Horn from CheckNews for identifying relevant sources, and Data Tech for Palestine for centralising the datasets.
Where sources mentioned a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces.
The incident occured during the night.
The victims were named as:
Family members (12)
Summary
Sources (64) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (100) [ collapse]
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Source: @ShehabAgency
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Source: wafa.ps news
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Source: @Roaastudies
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Source: PALESTINIANJOURNALISTSSYNDICATE
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Source: PALESTINIANJOURNALISTSSYNDICATE
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Source: Sufyan Akkad
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