The Israel-Gaza war has been devastating for journalists, with at least 64 killed and 13 wounded, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The risks are gravest for Palestinian reporters based in Gaza, who must keep themselves safe while also dealing with the loss of their homes, families and colleagues.
A day before Balousha was injured, elsewhere in Gaza, an Israeli drone strike killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and injured correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh while they were out reporting, the Qatari channel said. It accused Israeli forces of preventing rescue workers from reaching Abu Daqqa, who was “left to bleed to death for over 5 hours.”
Countering Al Jazeera’s claims, the IDF said it approved a “safe route” for ambulances to reach the journalist, but the vehicles took a different route and were unable to pass through a damaged road. “When the army became aware of the obstruction, a tractor and troops were dispatched to open the road, but unfortunately, it had already been too late,” the IDF said in a statement.
Al Jazeera said it will refer the case to the International Criminal Court.
In late November, Balousha broke the story that four premature babies left behind at al-Nasr Children’s Hospital after Israel forced the staff to evacuate without ambulances had died and their bodies had decomposed. Balousha was interviewed by The Post for a story about the incident. Shani Sasson, a spokeswoman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), had earlier told The Post that Israeli forces neither directed al-Nasr’s staff to evacuate nor operated inside the facility, but declined to answer whether COGAT or the Israeli military had been told about the babies or taken any action to care for them.
After he was shot on Saturday, Balousha said he fell to the ground and lay unconscious for about 20 minutes.
It took Balousha six hours to make it to the second floor. A video he took of his injuries showed heavy bleeding from his left leg.
He bandaged his wounds and tried to stop the bleeding as best he could. About 4 a.m., a friend called him by chance, but it took his friends two hours to reach him amid the threat of fighting.
“They transferred me onto a wooden board attached to a wheelchair and we walked a kilometer” to a local clinic, Balousha said. Medical volunteers there changed his bandages, gave him an injection and transferred him by ambulance to another health center.
The ambulance headed out but had to turn back because Israeli tanks blocked the way to the hospital, Balousha said. With no other option for surgery in Jabalya, he returned home.
Balousha accused Israel of directly targeting him as a journalist. “I was wearing everything to prove that I was a journalist, but they deliberately targeted me, and now I am struggling to get the treatment necessary to preserve my life,” he said.
Al Mashhad TV said in a statement that it “holds the Israeli government responsible” for Balousha’s safety and that the agency was trying to evacuate him from Gaza.
A CPJ report published in May, on the cases of 20 journalists whose deaths it attributed to the Israel Defense Forces since 2001, highlighted a pattern in Israel’s response: No one has been held accountable for them.
Evan Hill contributed to this report.
The article appeared in the Washington Post. To read the artcile in the original format, please click here.