30-minute coverage by 5 reporters at Gaza hospital ‘unresolved’ Gaza City ‘isolated in ruins’
The Israeli 7th Brigade opened an underground tunnel in a Gaza hospital and took five reporters in an armored vehicle to report on the scene for 30 minutes. The New York Times published an article as “unsolved.”
On the front page of Section A of the New York edition of the 18th, an article on the Gaza City scene by the Jerusalem bureau chief titled 'To the surprising land that the reporter once knew' states that Gaza City, which was familiar from several previous reporting visits, has completely turned into 'ruins'. “When we left 30 minutes later, the purpose of the mine still remained unresolved,” he said, denying the Israeli military’s claim that it was a “military facility command center.”
“In the darkness, it was unclear where the tunnel led or how deep it was, but the military said it sent a drone down at least a few meters,” the article said. “Electrical wiring was visible inside along with the metal stairs,” he wrote, and posted a photo of a straight white aluminum ladder with a broken top and traces of concrete among a pile of loose dirt and stones at the one-meter-wide entrance.
Regarding the hospital situation, the article said, “The huge hospital site, which was partially occupied by Israel on the 15th, is currently filled with empty tents of people who have fled due to the fighting,” and “We are digging through the rubble of the building, escorted by Israeli special forces.” “We hurriedly entered the building through the rubble of a building destroyed by bombing on the outskirts, and inside was a squad of Israeli soldiers sleeping in a restaurant that was temporarily converted from a dormitory,” he said.
The reporter said several lights were glowing dimly from hospital windows dozens of yards away, which the Israeli military said was evidence the hospital was continuing to function despite their presence.
Colonel Elad Tziri, commander of the Israeli 7th Brigade, told reporters, “Israeli soldiers did not go down the tunnel for fear of booby traps.” He added, “It was discovered under a pile of sand on the northern border of the complex on Thursday (16th) afternoon.” He said.
Director Patrick Kingsley left Israel and entered the Gaza Strip in the back of a military jeep, and when he turned off the headlights, “only the starlight remained, and the flares that Israeli soldiers sometimes shoot into the sky to illuminate the battlefield,” he said. “The only traces on the roadside were strategic In the gap, there were only silhouettes of Israeli infantrymen guarding the road. “We didn’t see any Palestinians,” he said.
In his view of northern Gaza, “More than a million people have fled their homes in the northern half of Gaza, leaving entire neighborhoods empty,” he said. “The few people left behind risk being cut off from any kind of support network.” .
In the Gaza City that the reporter saw, every house was missing walls, roofs, or both. Many buildings were simply flattened, their concrete floors piled on top of each other like a pack of cards.
The NYT reporter reported Gaza City as follows.
We arrived in the area of Gaza I know best. Over the course of a dozen visits over the past three years, I have often walked up and down the Mediterranean coastline, passing fish markets, mosques, apartment complexes and several beach clubs and cafes along the coastal road. Now it's almost unrecognizable. I couldn't find the fish market. Only then did I realize that the apartment complexes had been destroyed by shelling or air raids. The roads have been churned into sandy, bumpy roads by hundreds of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles that have spread across the territory since Israel invaded in late October.
We were not allowed to turn on our phones to call the hospital management and could not check the hospital status.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said this week that Al Shifa had ceased functioning as a hospital, and doctors interviewed by Qatari news channel Al Jazeera said the situation had noticeably worsened this week.
Regarding the on-site coverage, NYT said, "The group of five foreign reporters, including three New York Times reporters, traveled with a long Israeli military convoy carrying supplies to soldiers on the front lines." “We agreed not to film most of the soldiers’ faces, and we agreed to turn off our cell phones when we arrived in Gaza so as not to reveal our location.”
Reporting on life in wartime Gaza has been extremely difficult as Israel and Egypt have blocked independent access to the region, and Hamas has restricted journalists in the Gaza Strip.
The NYT said of Gaza City's isolation situation, "Communication with the outside world is increasingly blocked due to regular network outages."