Gaza: How Israel’s ‘double-tap’ strikes kill journalists and first responders • FRANCE 24

Gaza: How Israel’s ‘double-tap’ strikes kill journalists and first responders • FRANCE 24

First then, a clearer picture has now emerged about Israel’s deadly attack on one of Gaza’s main hospitals on Monday. The Israeli military bombed Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Hanunice a first time and then a second just as journalists and rescue workers had rushed to the scene. In total, 20 people were killed, including five journalists. Scores of others were injured. Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that it was a tragic mistake, though it is not the first time his military has targeted hospitals or journalists, nearly 200 of which have been killed since the start of the campaign in Gaza. Take a listen. Yesterday, we laughed a lot and she started showing us memories. She said, “When I die and when I am martyed.” I responded, “Who will you leave us for?” She then said, “There is nothing left. It’s done. Today or tomorrow, I will be martyed. It’s a loss not only for me, but a loss for all of Gaza. She was loved in the entire Gaza Strip. That was the sister and the father of one of the journalists who was killed in Monday’s attack. Well, for more on this, France 24’s international affairs editor, Ketavan Gorgani, uh joins me on set. Ketavan, um so we’ll start with Monday’s strikes. There’s growing outrage not just about the killing of journalists and rescue workers, but also about the tactic used, which is known as a double tap. tell us more about that. Yes, the double tap strike is a controversial uh tactic um designed really to maximize uh the casualties in an attack. Basically, what happens is that you have a first strike uh that might have an intended target, which is what we saw at the Nasser Hospital, and then several minutes later, a second strike on exactly the same uh area, the same uh target. And what it does is basically target and uh possibly in this case kill uh the people who uh sort of flock to uh the scene of an attack including of course the rescue workers to rush to the scene uh to help those uh injured in the first strike and the reporters who also rush to the scene to cover what has just happened. Now to be clear, the Israeli army is not the only one who has used this controversial uh tactic. You’ve seen it used by the Russians, for example, in the war in Ukraine or even the US military in wars in the past. It’s also a tactic that has been used by terrorist group to cause maximal uh casualties. Now, in this case, initially the Israeli army did confirm that the first strike was intended to be in the area of the Nasser hospital. It was followed by several statements by different Israeli officials and finally the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a tragic mishap as he said, but nothing uh in the statements actually uh addressed the issue of this tactic of the double tap strike. And uh according uh to uh several uh reports uh in Israeli media, this tactic it has become increasingly common for the uh Israeli operations in Gaza. And it does seem to indicate uh that it’s not really a mishap as Benjamin Netanyahu says, but likely more intentional because you could argue that a first strike could be a mistake, that the target is wrong. The second one in a few minutes on the same area uh shows that it might not be a mistake. And in this case, uh strikes targeted not only a hospital, not only rescue workers, doctors, journalists, and civilians. uh all of these groups are considered groups that have to be protected under international law even in times uh of war and therefore all of these groups were targeted by the Israeli military in what seems to be at this point something that was more than what the prime minister is calling it a mishap. Now amongst of course one of the main things to take from this attack Ketavan is the fact that five journalists were killed. There’s the other question about intentionality when it comes to journalists because uh nearly 200 journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of this war. Absolutely. And the Israeli government obviously is rejecting these accusations that is intentionally targeting journalists. Benyam Netanyahu in his statement added that Israel values the work of journalists and medical staff and uh all civilians. Uh but again as you said this is not the first time far from the first time that journalists are killed uh in Gaza. According to uh the committee to protect uh journalists uh 197 journalists and media workers have been killed since the start of the war. The vast majority of them 189 are Palestinian reporters killed in Gaza. Just two weeks ago you had uh Israel killing six journalists in a targeted attack. that time they actually did claim that one of the journalists was their actual intended target, accusing him of being a member of Hamas without giving really any uh evidence to really corroborate that accusation. Uh and that’s basically what you see, which is the two explanations when Israeli military kills a journalist. Either it’s a mistake or the journalists are members of Hamas. But several media organizations have been saying that this tactic of targeting journalists intentionally has been growing over the months of this war. And if you add that to the fact that Israel is blocking access to reporters from outside Gaza to get in and uh report on their own. What you see is that uh those who are left are the Palestinian journalists. They are the ones who are feeding information to the rest of the world’s media organization. Uh and they are facing the same dire circumstances as the rest of the civilian uh Palestinians uh who are facing a malnutrition, who are facing displacement, who have to care for their families, find shelter. Uh all of that uh has pushed a lot of organizations to really uh accuse and criticize the Israeli government for that targeting uh of the journalists by saying that simply they don’t want any reports coming out of Gaza the statement from Doctors Without Borders and then end with that as Israel continues to shun international law the only witnesses of their genocidal campaign are deliberately being targeted. Those people that they’re speaking of are of course those reporters, those Palestinians still there giving out the news.

A clearer picture has now emerged about Israel’s deadly attack on one of Gaza’s main hospitals Monday. The Israeli military bombed Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis a first time… and then a second time, just as journalists and rescue workers had rushed to the scene. In total 20 people were killed – including five journalists – and scores of others were injured. Analysis by FRANCE 24 international affairs editor Kethevane Gorjestani.
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