SHAH ALAM - In one of the most harrowing assaults on press freedom, Palestinian journalist Ahmad Mansour remains in critical condition after being burned alive in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a tent sheltering journalists in Khan Younis, Gaza.
It was reported that at around 3am on April 7, an Israeli airstrike targeted a media tent located in the courtyard of the Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli attack has left two dead and nine others injured. The tent, a well-known shelter for displaced journalists, was completely engulfed in flames following the attack.
An unfortunate circumstance was expected as the bombing claimed the lives of Helmi Al-Faqawi, a correspondent for Palestine Today and civilian Yousef Al-Khazandar.
According to Palestinian news agency Quds Network, a video circulated online captured the horrifying moment when the tent was engulfed in flames while a man screamed as he was burned alive.
The man was later identified as journalist Ahmad Mansour, a correspondent for Palestine Today.
Mansour survived the initial blast but sustained catastrophic burns and remains in critical condition.
It was reported that fellow journalist Abed Shaat, who narrowly escaped the attack, described the horror of witnessing his colleagues consumed by fire.
"To see your colleague engulfed in flames, I don’t think you can witness anything more difficult than that.
"May God have mercy on him. He is now receiving treatment," Shaat said.
He had also sustained burns to his hands while trying to rescue Mansour.
Shaat described the attack as deliberate, noting that the journalists targeted were well-known and the camp was widely recognised as a hub for journalists.
"The tent was known to everyone (as a space for journalists), which confirms that this was a targeted attack on journalists," he said.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) issued a statement calling the attack as "one of the most heinous crimes in the history of journalism."
They urged the United Nations Security Council to immediately intervene and called on the International Criminal Court to expedite investigations against Israeli leaders, particularly its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
PJS reiterated their appeal to all press freedom organisations to further expose to the world the horrific massacres and atrocities being committed by the Israeli occupation forces against journalists in Gaza.
As of March 26, 232 journalists have been killed in the Gaza genocide, with the majority being Palestinians.
According to a newly-released paper by the Costs of War project in Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, more journalists have been killed in the war in Gaza than in the US Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined.
"It is, quite simply, the worst ever conflict for reporters," it said in its report entitled "News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World."