ABED Shaat drifted off to sleep on Sunday night, exhausted after covering Israeli air strikes all day.
The 33-year-old freelance photographer had returned to a tent in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza where he’d been based along with other journalists since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Then, they were jolted awake.
“I woke up to the sound of a huge explosion nearby,” Shaat said. “My colleagues and I immediately rushed out of the tent. [I had] my mobile phone to film.
“The strike had directly hit the journalists’ tent across from us. I was horrified – to target journalists like this!”
The tent belonged to the TV station Palestine Today.
“I started taking pictures from a distance, but as I got closer to the burning tent, I saw one of my colleagues on fire,” Shaat said.
“I couldn’t continue filming. I don’t even know how I summoned the courage to approach the flames and try to pull the burning person out.
“The fire was intense. There was a gas canister that had exploded, and another one that was burning. I tried to pull him out by his leg, but his pants tore off in my hand. I tried from another angle, but I couldn’t.
“The fire grew so strong, I fell back, I couldn’t bear it any longer. Then some of the men came with water to put the fire out.
“I suddenly felt really weak … and lost consciousness.”
Israel’s attack burned Palestine Today reporter Hilmi al-Faqaawi to death along with another man named Yousef al-Khazindar.
Journalists Hassan Eslaih, Ahmed al-Agha, Muhammad Fayek, Abdallah Al-Attar, Ihab al-Bardini and Mahmoud Awad were also injured.
The Israeli army said on X it had launched the attack to capture Hassan Abdel Fattah Muhammad Islayh (Eslaih), alleging he was a member of Hamas posing as a journalist.
Eslaih, a journalist with a large social media following, was badly wounded in the strike. He had been threatened multiple times by Israeli authorities for covering an attack on an Israeli kibbutz during the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli army also said it took steps “to reduce the chance of harming civilians” but did not explain why it chose to bomb a tent full of sleeping journalists to capture one of them.
More than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, making it the deadliest ever conflict for journalists.