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Gaza / Anadolu Agency
** The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip stated in a statement:
- The first airstrike targeted a Reuters photographer.
- The second airstrike targeted journalists, civil defense, and humanitarian workers who rushed to the rescue.
- Israel is pursuing a systematic policy of "double slam," a "criminal tactic prohibited internationally."
- Israel falsified the identities of the victims and published a list of six names, some of whom were confirmed to have been killed outside the hospital.
- Those present on the external staircase were known by name: journalists, civil defense, and humanitarian workers.
The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip refuted the Israeli narrative on Tuesday, describing it as "misleading," through which Tel Aviv attempted to justify the massacre it perpetrated Monday at Nasser Hospital, which resulted in the deaths of 22 civilians, including five journalists.
The office said that Israel "is trying to justify its crime by spreading a false narrative claiming that it targeted a resistance camera. This is a false claim devoid of any evidence and aimed at evading legal and moral responsibility for a full-blown massacre."
Earlier Tuesday, Channel 13 reported that an initial Israeli military investigation into the bombing of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Monday attributed the attack to the presence of a Hamas "surveillance camera."
The army claimed in its investigation that "the camera is used to monitor the activity of its forces with the aim of directing terrorist activities against them."
Refuting this claim, the government media office in Gaza said in a statement that the "camera" targeted by the army "belonged to Reuters photojournalist Hossam al-Masri, who was killed by the occupation forces in the first airstrike."
He continued: "After the first strike, civil defense teams, journalists, and humanitarian service providers rushed to rescue the wounded, only to be surprised by the occupation forces' deliberate and direct second strike, which resulted in the deaths of most of the victims in this massacre, which was broadcast live."
The office confirmed that Israel is pursuing a systematic policy of "double tack," which is "an internationally prohibited criminal tactic that reveals the occupation's deliberate intent to inflict the greatest possible number of civilian casualties."
Furthermore, "Israel falsified the identities of the victims and published a list of six martyrs, claiming they were terrorists. However, field facts prove that some of them were killed outside the Nasser Medical Complex," according to the government office statement.
The office added in this regard: "One of the martyrs was targeted by the occupation forces in the Mawasi al-Qarara tents, as was the martyr Omar Abu Taym, who was killed in another location and at a different time. His body has not yet been recovered, contrary to what the occupation forces claimed. Furthermore, the remaining martyrs were civilian victims, most of whom were killed in the second strike, not the first."
According to Channel 13, the Israeli army claimed that "among those killed (in the attack on Nasser Hospital) were six terrorists, including one who participated in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023."
In this regard, the Government Media Office in Gaza emphasized that all the individuals present on the targeted external staircase of the Nasser complex were "known by name and profession, including journalists, civil defense personnel, and humanitarian workers, and are not wanted."
The office considered the Israeli narrative "an extension of the occupation's longstanding approach to every crime, fabricating pretexts and evidence to avoid international prosecution. Its repeated accusations of military activities against hospitals and civilian infrastructure are intended to legitimize their bombing, a complete violation of all international laws."
It noted that Israel has failed "throughout its genocidal war to prove its allegations and lies that hospitals or civilian infrastructure are linked to military activities."
The office called on the international community, UN and international human rights organizations, and the International Criminal Court to "take immediate action to hold accountable the perpetrators of the Nasser Medical Complex crime and reject any narrative that justifies the killing of civilians."
According to Palestinian official and medical sources, among the victims of the "Nasser" massacre in Khan Yunis were five journalists, a civil defense firefighter driver, four medical workers, and a sixth-year medical student.