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Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) has strongly condemned the targeted killing of Palestinian journalist Hassan Aslih by Israeli forces on Tuesday, May 13, inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza.
Aslih, who was being treated for a previous injury, was killed when an Israeli drone strike directly hit the hospital’s burns unit—an act WJWC decried as a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
According to eyewitness accounts and medical sources, an Israeli drone fired a missile at the specific hospital room where Aslih was receiving treatment. The strike not only killed Aslih but also injured several others and caused significant damage to the facility. The incident underscores the intensifying attacks on journalists and the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
WJWC emphasized that journalists, particularly those operating in conflict zones, are entitled to protection under international law. “The deliberate targeting of a journalist inside a protected medical facility constitutes a blatant war crime,” the organization stated, referencing the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and Article 8 of the International Convention on the Safety of Journalists.
The death of Hassan Aslih brings the number of journalists killed by Israeli forces in Gaza to 215 since the beginning of the war, as reported by local authorities. The Gaza Ministry of Health has recorded over 52,900 Palestinian deaths since October 7, 2023, marking what WJWC has described as a campaign to silence journalists and prevent documentation of alleged atrocities against civilians.
WJWC noted that Aslih had faced ongoing incitement since the start of the conflict, largely due to his prominent coverage of the “Al-Aqsa Flood.” In April 2024, a coordinated smear campaign in Hebrew-language media outlets accused him of affiliations with resistance groups, despite a lack of credible evidence. These attacks culminated in the suspension of his cooperation with CNN, according to fellow journalist Mohammed Othman.
Aslih’s reporting had made him a widely followed and trusted voice, particularly through his Telegram channel, which attracted over 750,000 subscribers for its timely documentation of developments in Gaza. His role as a key eyewitness placed him at heightened risk, WJWC argued, calling the circumstances of his death “foreseeable and deliberate.”
This was not the first instance in which journalists near Nasser Medical Complex were targeted. On April 7, Israeli forces launched an unannounced attack on a tent sheltering journalists near the same hospital, killing Helmi al-Faqawi and Yousef al-Khazindar, and critically injuring others, including Ahmed Mansour and Hassan Aslih himself. In a subsequent statement, the Israeli army claimed the attack aimed to assassinate Aslih, alleging his ties to Palestinian resistance groups and suggesting he was “operating under the guise of journalism”—claims made without substantiating evidence.
WJWC rejected such justifications as “shameful and unacceptable,” asserting that the labeling of journalists as combatants without due process poses a dangerous precedent. The organization warned that such narratives serve to rationalize extrajudicial killings and erode the protections journalists should be afforded under international law.
Women Journalists Without Chains is calling for immediate international intervention to halt ongoing violations in Gaza, ensure the protection of journalists, and establish an independent international investigation into the targeted killings of media workers since October 2023. In a previous report, “A Year of Tragedy: One Journalist Killed Every Two Days in Gaza,” WJWC documented the systematic nature of these attacks. WJWC President Tawakkol Karman stated, “This is not incidental—it is a calculated campaign to suppress truth and intimidate those who seek to report it.”
The organization urges the United Nations, international human rights bodies, and global governments to uphold their legal and moral obligations by holding those responsible to account. WJWC maintains that ending the cycle of impunity is essential to stopping further crimes and preserving press freedom in conflict zones.
