WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR: M.J. GDNUS
Hussam al-Masri, a Reuters journalist, was killed in an Israeli strike on Monday while broadcasting live from Nasser Hospital in Gaza. He was reporting on the suffering of civilians during the war while himself living in a tent and struggling to provide food for his family, the news agency confirmed today.
Masri, 49, was an experienced cameraman whose positive attitude in the most dangerous situations made him popular among the close-knit community of journalists in Gaza, fellow reporters said.
“Whatever comes tomorrow, it’ll be better,” he used to say, even as conditions in the Palestinian enclave increasingly led toward hunger and despair in the months before his death.
That was how he ended his last conversation with Mohamed Salem, a Reuters journalist who had known Masri since 2003 and worked with him in Rafah, in southern Gaza, last year.
Salem, who left Gaza later in 2024 but remained in daily contact with Masri until Monday morning, said that his optimism and smile made working with him a pleasure.
Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said, “Hussam was deeply committed to telling Gaza’s story to the world.”
“He was strong, calm, and brave under the most challenging circumstances. His loss is deeply felt by everyone in our newsroom who worked with him,” Galloni said.
Masri’s body was found next to his camera on the hospital’s exterior stairs, from where he had been broadcasting a view toward Khan Younis when the Israeli strike hit, Reuters video shows.
A second explosion on the stairs a few minutes later killed at least 19 people, including a rescuer and four journalists working for media outlets including the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and others. One of them, Moaz Abu Taha, was filming material for Reuters and others.
Reuters photographer Hatem Khaled was injured in the second strike while filming the aftermath of the first explosion on the stairs.
The Israeli military told Reuters on Tuesday that journalists for Reuters and the Associated Press were not the “target of the strike.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel deeply regrets what he called a “tragic incident” at the hospital.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has documented a total of 189 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel during the war in Gaza, called on the international community to hold Israel accountable and said on Monday that “those responsible must no longer act with impunity.”
