Still reeling from yesterday’s massacre of five journalists, the Gaza press corps loses another member to deliberate Israeli targeting. Late last night, Israeli occupation forces killed journalist and academic Hassan Douhan in an attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the west of Khan Younis.
Hassan and his displaced neighbor were deliberately shot by Israeli fire at the tents, dying before they could reach the emergency department at Nasser Medical Complex, a journalist on the scene told Al Manassa.
Hassan’s slaying brings the number of journalists killed since the start of Israel’s genocide to 246, according to the Gaza Media Office. Just two days ago, the office had reported the toll had climbed to 240.
Dr. Hassan DouhanDouhan headed the investigative journalism unit at the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida. Also a respected academic, he lectured on new media and investigative reporting at several Gaza universities.
In recent years, he mentored and trained dozens of young journalists and media students, leaving a lasting imprint on the profession.
The Gaza Media Office condemned Douhan’s killing, holding Israeli forces fully responsible for what it called ongoing crimes of killing and assassination of journalists in Gaza.
It decried that the brazen Israeli double strike outside Nasser Medical Complex on Monday—which claimed the life of more than 20 Palestinians, including five journalists. The massacre was filmed and broadcast live on television, unfolding before a global audience.
Despite this, Israel’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir announced that he has ordered an “initial inquiry” into the massacre to uncover those responsible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the massacre as a “tragic mishap,” claiming that Israel “values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians” in a post on X written in English.
At the same time, Israel’s Channel 14 boasted that occupation forces had succeeded in carrying out a “precise attack on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which according to security officials was used as a terrorist headquarters.”
Between Monday and early Tuesday, the Israeli army killed more than 100 Palestinians across Gaza, half of them in Khan Younis, and injured over 400, according to a Gaza Health Ministry source who spoke to Al Manassa.
A journalist on the scene in Khan Younis described Israeli forces targeting more than six tents of displaced families, killing women and children and wiping entire families from the civil registry. One strike on a tent belonging to the Kawarea family killed the father, mother, and their three children, he told Al Manassa.
Israeli forces struck tents sheltering displaced families in Nuseirat and Khan Younis, killing parents and leaving wounded children behind. Other overnight attacks leveled homes in Al-Bureij and Gaza City, flattening neighborhoods and trapping families under rubble.
Witnesses said more than 20 Palestinians were also killed as people waited for aid near the Zikim checkpoint, while missile strikes and remote-detonated drones devastated blocks in Jabaliya, destroying dozens of buildings.
The Gaza Media Office repeated its call urging international organizations and governments to condemn Israel’s crimes, pursue accountability in international courts, and pressure for an end to the ongoing war on Gaza.
That call has echoed internationally. Earlier this month, more than 200 journalists signed the “Freedom to Report” petition demanding unsupervised access for foreign media to Gaza, warning that the enclave has become the deadliest place for journalists in modern history.
Their call, however, is yet to be heard by Israeli occupation forces, who maintain control over all of Gaza’s crossings.
