The assassination of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh has led to a new turning point in the war. In Gaza, a state of mourning is apparent.
The assassination that took place in Tehran at dawn on Wednesday opened raw wounds for many in Gaza. It added to the ongoing cycle of fear and loss that has not ended since October 7.
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, mourned Ismail Haniyeh and said in a statement that the assassination that took place in the heart of the Iranian capital was a critical and dangerous event that would take the battle to new dimensions and would have major repercussions on the region.
“By targeting Ismail Haniyeh, Israel imagined that it could weaken the Hamas movement and the Palestinian resistance, and this is a great illusion,” Muhammad al-Hindi, deputy head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, said during a TV interview.
People in al-Shati’ refugee camp west of Gaza City, where Ismail Hamiyah was born and raised, received the news early in the morning. His home there lays in ruins, bombed by Israel several months prior, and people had gathered around it to commemorate the slain leader. Children held up his picture while standing next to the rubble of his home.
One of the people who was there to capture the scene was a reporter with Al Jazeera whose name was also Ismail. He had become a household name in his own right for anyone following the war’s developments, especially in northern Gaza where the fighting has been the most brutal.
Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul was assassinated by Israel in the line of duty as he covered the commemoration of Ismail Haniyeh. He and another journalist who was a part of his team were in a clearly identifiable press vehicle when a missile directly hit them. It killed both reporters and a young boy walking by. The strike left Ismail al-Ghoul’s body headless.
The death of the two Ismails within the span of a few hours has hit the people of Gaza hard.
“Israel is trying to take away everything from Palestinians, even their pride in such leaders and journalists,” Mahmoud Essa, a journalist in northern Gaza who attended al-Ghoul’s funeral, told Mondoweiss. “The Israelis are sending us a message with every assassination — look what happens to the journalist who goes to film Hanyieh’s destroyed home; we’ve bombed his head off.”
Remembering Ismail al-Ghoul
When the genocidal war first started, Ismail al-Ghoul had resolved to remain in the north to cover the war, sending his wife and little daughter south to escape the fighting.
Anas al-Sharif, a colleague of Ismail at Al Jazeera, appeared in a video standing beside Ismail’s headless body. Holding the press vest that he had worn at the time of his assassination, al-Sharif said that despite his belief that a vest would protect him, it did nothing to save Ismail. Al-Sharif lamented that it was now stained with Ismail’s blood and scattered remains.
As journalists and others carried his body for the funeral, a rescue officer arrived with a plastic bag to collect pieces of Ismail’s head for the burial, Mahmoud Essa told Mondoweiss.
The death of their colleague was a harsh reminder to journalists of the dangers faced by reporters in Gaza, forcing many to confront the grim realities of their profession.
One of the most poignant tributes that circulated was a letter Ismail had written to his daughter, Zeina.
On June 30, Ismail posted the letter on his personal Facebook account. He expressed sorrow over not having seen her since the war began and lamented missing her growth and presence.
“At the beginning of the war, when my little girl Zeina was crawling and trying to say ‘baba,’ I was at my happiest. But as the war continued, my heart was heavy knowing she was displaced and far away,” he wrote.
“Zeina would call out to me when she saw me on the screen, saying ‘Baba.’ It was a wonderful feeling, but it didn’t last. For nine months, she asked, ‘Where is Baba?’ The pain of not being with her and watching her grow was immense.”
He concluded, “But we find solace in knowing that we sacrificed everything for this cause and this message.”
‘ELIMINATED’: Israel Brags Of Killing Noted Al Jazeera Journalist In GazaA post from the Israeli military acknowledged that Ismail al-Ghoul was a journalist – and also accused him, without evidence, of being a terrorist….A day after an Israeli air strike killed a noted Al Jazeera journalist and his cameraman, the Israeli army acknowledged killing the reporters — and indicated the strike was purposeful….Graphic video of the scene of the airstrike shows al-Ghoul was wearing a blue vest reading, “PRESS,” when he was killed. Both al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were wearing press vests and their vehicle carried “identifying signs,” Al Jazeera reported. Multiple reports indicated a nearby child was also killed in the strike….In a tweet Thursday, the Israeli military indicated it had purposefully targeted the journalist, claiming without evidence that al-Ghoul was a “terrorist” and a member of Hamas’ military wing….Among other questions, the IDF spokesperson did not answer why Israeli forces had released al-Ghoul in March if he was supposedly a military operative of Hamas.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eliminated-ismail-al-ghoul-rami-al-rifi-israel-air-strike_n_66ac0c01e4b037c1f37e7df4
Here is why Al Ghoul was killed according to the IDF and as reported in Times of Israel.
“Military says Ismail Al-Ghoul was member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force, directed terrorists on how to film, distribute videos of attacks on Israeli troops.”
I do not believe the IDF explanation for this killing. If he was a Hamas le!der then they ought to have announced a legitimate reason for killing a military member of Hamas beforehand. That way if they eventually killed a member of the press, his death would be explained by his military role . The fact that they announced his role after his death comes across as a fabrication to justify killing another reporter. In my mind IDF is guilty until proven innocent here. I do not accept this explanation without proof.
Chris Hedges: A Diary of Genocide
August 2, 2024
An interview with Atef Abu Saif, the Palestinian novelist who chronicled his experience surviving the most recent onslaught in Gaza. Born in the besieged territory, Saif has known war his whole life.
By Chris Hedges
“Those that attempt to transmit the truth from war zones — whether factual or artistic — in the face of death, violence and sickness vanquish the lies told by the killers, determined to make those of us far from the carnage understand. This is why writers, photographers and journalists are targeted by aggressors in war, including the Israelis, for obliteration.Atef Abu Saif, the Palestinian novelist who has served as the minister for culture in the Palestine Authority since 2019, chronicled his experience surviving the most recent onslaught in Gaza that has persisted since last October in his book, Don’t Look Left: A Diary of Genocide.
Born in Gaza, Saif has known war his whole life.
“I was born during war, and I might die during war, actually,” he tells me in this interview. “This is our life as Palestinians.”
By detailing the trauma of his experience through horrifyingly vivid imagery and tragic tales of murdered loved ones and permanently injured family, Saif illustrates how life in Gaza, as he says, “is timeout for survival. The normal discourse is to be killed and for your house to be destroyed, like my house in this war. So what we live is like a timeout. It’s rest. So it’s not the normal thing to live.”
This spacey description of existing in the face of genocide is reflected in the minister for culture’s words to his niece Wissam when she lost her legs and one of her hands after her family was bombed by the Israelis:”
“We are all in a dream…all our dreams are terrifying.”
“There are scores of Palestinian writers, journalists and photographers, many of whom have been killed in the Israeli attacks on Gaza, who are determined to make us see and feel the horror of this genocide. They, in the end, will vanquish the lies told by the killers.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/02/chris-hedges-a-diary-of-genocide/
Who are the real terrorists in this conflict? Or, who are the worse terrorists? An element within the Hamas organization committed terrorist acts in killing and abducting civilians. That’s a clear war crime. With Israel, you have a whole state—including armed settler thugs— killing, starving, injuring, torturing and taking civilian hostages on an industrial scale. And, it has been doing so for decades as the occupying power. It even rationalizes sodomizing people it has abducted who had nothing to do with October 7th.
Israel as a regional military superpower, with the backing of its genocide by a global superpower in the US, is almost entirely responsible not only for its vicious and depraved actions toward Palestinian civilians, but also for the terrorism its citizens suffered on October 7th. Why did the Israeli government choose to not defend its southern border on October 7th?
Israel holds all the cards. Had they implemented what they signed onto under Oslo, the conflict would have been long resolved. Palestinians settled for a mere 22 percent of their historic lands in order to achieve a semblance of justice. This was too much for the leaders of the Apartheid state.
As of Aug 2:
https://cpj.org/2024/08/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/