Gaza reporter’s wife died after Israel’s strike: “Ahmed burns all over the world.”
Warning: This story contains details about a burning man alive.
Nidaa Mansour read a news alert on her phone that Israeli air strikes hit tents used by local media in southern Gaza, causing lights to erupt in the tent.
She frantically called her husband, Ahmad Mansour, a reporter and editor at the Palestinian News Agency today, who was working in a tent in the southern Canadian city of Khan. She was unable to contact him but learned that he had been taken to the hospital, although she was not aware of his condition.
This week, Mansour’s footage appears to indicate that he is widely shared on social media as he is still engulfed in flames while sitting down.
“Ahmed burns all over the world,” Nida said at a funeral on Tuesday. “When he burns, the whole world sees him and no one can help him.”
Video shared online shows a man running to Mansour trying to pull his legs to drive him out while others try to use them to apply a fire with little water and throw a blanket on him. People screamed in fear and incredible as people witnessed his body being consumed by the fire.
“Dear God,” one shouted as he filmed.
CBC News has seen the video and has chosen not to display it due to its graphic nature.
Ahmad, 32, was taken to the hospital for severe burns. He died Tuesday at the hospital a day later.
Journalist Helmi Al-Faqawi was killed in an Israeli airstrike with another man in an Israeli media tent, while nine others, including Mansour, were injured. Media tents are in a large courtyard of Nasser Hospital.
Nidaa, 28, said she called her husband Sunday night and asked him to leave the area after hearing the air strikes. He told her that he would leave soon before the attack occurred.
“He didn’t come back,” she said. “I called him many times. But he didn’t answer him.”
Mansour leaves 3 children
When Nie reached the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, who was treated in Mansour, she could not see him.
“I [still] “Some hope he’s still alive,” Nida said.
At Tuesday’s funeral, colleagues wrapped Mansour’s body in a white shroud onto a medical stretcher, with his blue flak jacket on it. His wife kneeled beside his body, recited the Quran, and dozens of people gathered around him, including his two 1 and 6-year-old sons and a five-year-old daughter.
Nidaa Mansour said her husband Ahmad had striked Israelily in the early hours of Monday against media tents against Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza. Images of her husband, a journalist, devoured the fire that broke out in the tent and were widely shared online.
In a joint statement Monday, the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) said they launched an attack by Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih (Eslayeh) in the region, claiming he was a member of the Khan Younis Brigade of Hamas, who is a journalist. They provided no evidence.
He recorded and uploaded videos of robbery, arson and murder in the October 7, 2023 attack on Hamas-led Israeli.
CBC News reviewed Aslih’s Instagram account but did not find the posts. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza government’s media office, said Israel’s allegations against Asley were “false”, adding that Asley has no political faction.
Other reporters were killed
The attack on the media tent happened the day after another journalist, Islam Meqdad, killed her husband and children.
Mansour’s death on Tuesday increased the number of journalists killed in Israel’s Gaza campaign since October 2023, according to Palestinian journalist Syndicate.
In a statement Monday, the U.S. Commission on Conservation of Journalists (CPJ) condemned the attack.
“This is not the first time Israel has targeted tents to protect journalists in Gaza. The failure of the international community to take action to keep these attacks on the press impunity, undermining efforts to hold the perpetrators accountable,” said Sara Qudah, director of the MENA region.
“The CPJ calls on authorities to allow the injured injured, some of whom suffered severe burns, to evacuate immediately for treatment and to stop attacking the already destroyed press in Gaza.”
The IDF said “many steps” were taken before the attack to mitigate harm to civilians, “including the use of precise ammunition, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.”
On March 18, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza largely ceased the battle in a 42-day first phase of the agreement after Israel resumed air and ground attacks on war-torn territory.
Palestinian officials said more than 50,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Civil Defense, thousands of people are believed to be still under the ruins.
According to Israeli Tales (Israeli), the attacks on southern Israel were attacked on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 people as hostages.
