• Israeli forces claim they attacked hospital to target ‘camera installed by Hamas’; Reuters says its feed shut, cameraman killed in strike
• UN inquiry on violence halted due to paucity of funds
• Qatar awaits Israeli response to truce proposal
GENEVA: The United Nations insisted on Tuesday that Israel must not only investigate alleged unlawful killings in Gaza like the recent hospital strike that killed 20 people, including several journalists, but also ensure those probes yield results.
“There needs to be justice,” United Nations rights office (OHCHR) spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva, adding that the large number of media workers killed in the Gaza war “raises many, many questions about the targeting of journalists”.
His comments came after an Israeli strike on the Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis on Monday killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, sparking an international outcry.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military claimed the two strikes that killed five journalists a day earlier were targeting a camera operated by Hamas.
An initial Israeli military inquiry claimed that its soldiers “identified a camera that was positioned by Hamas in the area of the Nasser Hospital” in the southern Gaza Strip, adding that they “operated to remove the threat by striking and dismantling the camera”.
However, the Reuters news agency pointed out that it and other news providers often deliver live video feeds to media outlets worldwide during major news events to show the scene from the ground in real time.
Reuters has frequently broadcast a feed from Nasser hospital during the Gaza war, and for the past several weeks had been delivering daily feeds from the hospital position that was hit.
On Monday, the Reuters live video feed from the hospital, which ameraman Hussam al-Masri, a Reuters contractor, had been operating, suddenly shut down at the moment of the initial strike. Masri was killed in the attack.
The journalists killed also included Mariam Abu Dagga, who freelanced for the Associated Press and other outlets, Mohammed Salama, who worked for Al Jazeera, Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist who worked with several news organizations including Reuters, and Ahmed Abu Aziz.
At least 278 journalists, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza over the past 22 months, according to Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli authorities have, in the past, announced investigations in such killings… but these investigations need to yield results,” Kheetan said.
“We haven’t seen results or accountability measures yet. We have yet to see the results of these investigations, and we call for accountability and justice.”
Describing this as “a shock” and “unacceptable”, he said this incident and the killing of all civilians, including journalists, must be thoroughly and independently investigated, and justice must follow.
Probe stalled amid fund shortage
On the other hand, a document showed, a team of UN investigators tasked with researching cases of violence by Israeli settlers and the transfer of arms to Israel for use in the Gaza war could not complete their work due to financial constraints.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory can provide evidence of international crimes used in pre-trial investigations by tribunals like the International Criminal Court.
Last year, the council approved a request from Pakistan to research additional evidence on arms transfers to Israel in the context of the Gaza war and Israeli settler violence.
But Navi Pillay, who heads the inquiry, told the council’s president in a letter that a lack of funds meant it was unable to hire staff.
“The Commission has started informing the sponsors of the two resolutions that it will be unable to produce these mandated reports and present them to the Council in March 2026,” said Pillay, who has served as a judge at the ICC and is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Qatar ‘still awaits’ Israeli response
Meanwhile, mediator Qatar said that it was “still waiting” for Israel’s response to a proposal for a truce and prisoners’ deal in the Palestinian territory after Hamas agreed to the framework more than a week ago.
Qatar and Egypt, along with the United States, who have been mediating indirect ceasefire negotiations throughout the Gaza war, but despite sealing two temporary truces, the successive rounds of talks have repeatedly failed to bring a lasting end to the conflict.
“We are still waiting for an answer” from Israel, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a news conference on Tuesday, adding: “The statements that we are hearing right now do not fill us with confidence.”
“The responsibility now lies on the Israeli side to respond to an offer that is on the table,” he said, adding that Qatar did not see a “positive trajectory coming out of this escalation on the ground”.
