The assassination of journalist Hassan Eslaiah, who was receiving treatment at Nasser Medical Hospital, is a brutal and complex war crime that reflects Israel’s contempt for the principles of humanity and international law
Date: May 13, 2025
Press Release
The assassination of journalist Hassan Eslaiah, who was receiving treatment at Nasser Medical Hospital, is a brutal and complex war crime that reflects Israel’s contempt for the principles of humanity and international law.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns and denounces the assassination of journalist Hassan Eslaiah as a result of an Israeli airstrike targeting the burns treatment building at Nasser Hospital, where he was receiving medical care due to injuries sustained weeks earlier from an attack on the journalists’ tent outside the same hospital. This attack led to the immediate killing and martyrdom of journalist Hassan Eslaiah.
It is worth noting that journalist Hassan Eslaiah had previously been subjected to a series of violations by Israeli occupation forces, including death threats, the bombing of his home, and being pursued due to his journalistic work. These acts form part of a broader pattern of brutal crimes and attacks against journalists, aimed at silencing coverage, documentation, and exposure of genocide crimes and the suffering of the Palestinian people. The assassination of journalist Eslaiah demonstrates a blatant disregard for the protections guaranteed under international law for both hospitals and journalists. Any targeting of such protected persons and places constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a grave breach of the rules of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention which affords special protection to journalists. This act also represents a serious violation of human rights standards and United Nations resolutions for the protection of journalists.
The ICSPR, while reiterating its condemnation of the targeted assassination of journalist Eslaiah and the ongoing deliberate crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against journalists and media institutions, calls for urgent and immediate action to stop the genocidal war and Israeli aggression. This aggression has led to the extermination of over 65,000 martyrs and missing persons, including 215 journalists, the injury of 118,000 people including 409 journalists, and the arrest of 50 others. In addition, all media institutions and their equipment have been destroyed, and massacres have been committed against journalists’ families, including the destruction of their homes.
The ICSPR calls on the international community, the United Nations, and the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention to provide international protection for journalists and to activate union and legal efforts to hold perpetrators of international crimes against journalists accountable before international courts, and to impose boycotts and sanctions on the Israeli occupation state.
The ICSPR also urges the International Federation of Journalists, media unions, and institutions to act to hold Israel accountable, suspend its membership in international unions, strengthen solidarity with Palestinian journalists, and pressure their respective countries and international and regional organizations to fulfill their moral, legal, and humanitarian responsibilities to protect journalists and provide them with necessary support and assistance.
