On Oct. 7, 2023, a Hamas-led surprise attack on Southern Israel occurred from the Gaza strip, which involved a large rocket and militants breaching the borders of Israel. This attack on Israel resulted in 1,200 deaths, and added to the extant tension between Israeli-Palestinian forces.
In response, war was declared on Gaza, officially starting the war between Gaza and Israel. Over time, the war’s intensity has grown, with many deaths and attacks since the beginning of it.
On Aug. 25, 2025, Nasser Hospital was “double-tapped”, meaning the same spot was struck twice in quick succession by Israeli forces. This caused the death of 20 people, including five Palestinian journalists.
Nasser Hospital, located in Khan Yunis of the southern Gaza Strip, is the main source of help for many wounded citizens in the area. The hospital has previously withstood raids and bombardments, but the lack of resources and staff as the famine deepens is worsening the suffering for around 1,000 patients.
The attack on the hospital that Monday morning was back-to-back, giving no time for the people inside to evacuate before the second missile came down. Doctors there reported a scene of pure chaos and fear, according to NBC News. The attacks hit the fourth-floor staircase, the exact spot where journalists were sitting and waiting for WiFi. On NBC News Dr. Mohammed Saqer, the director of nursing in Nasser hospital, states that the journalist’s locations were not unknown.
“It’s not a secret place. It’s a clear place, obvious place. Everyone can see this place. Even the Israeli army, by their own drones or by their own cameras, they can see Hussam and other journalists working from the fourth floor. So it’s not a secret,” Saqer said.
Hatem Omar, one of the surviving Reuters journalists, reviewed the footage he capture
d of the explosion while resting in the hospital due to his injuries. His footage contains the journalists huddled together right before the missile goes off, then the only thing that can be seen is dust and smoke.
“I did not have any reaction. I entered the afterlife, the world of the dead. A deafening noise, a buzzing in my ears, an explosion. I shut my eyes, not knowing what to do,” Omar said, according to NBC News.
The journalists in Gaza are not prepared or expecting to be attacked while doing their job, yet a large number of 247 journalists have died in Gaza since the war started. Each journalist has a fundamental right of sharing their work and information through their chosen form of media according to the United Nations (UN). Yet, many perspectives are being blocked from the outside world due to these attacks. The UN works with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote press safety and freedom to help prevent attacks such as these on our world’s press. At the core of this organization is Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which further iterates the fact that all press deserves a chance to share their work with our media. UDHR’s two interlocking freedoms include the freedom to speak, and the freedom to know.
At Paso Robles High School (PRHS), students are encouraged to express themselves freely and journalistically. More specifically, PRHS journalists and yearbook students are told to research, learn, and create. Education codes, such as CA Ed Code 48907, protect them from retaliation or punishment when it comes to creating stories that may be controversial or political. These education codes are what protects their rights as journalists in the classroom, alongside the rights implicated from general articles (articles similar to Article 19).
The importance of journalistic perspectives is recognized by PRHS when their stories are printed and shared throughout the school. Ryan Askew, an AP Government, Government, and Modern World History teacher at PRHS, acknowledges the roles journalists carry when it comes to presenting information.
“Journalists are trained to be able to try to enter these crisis zones and present information, hopefully, as objectively as possible. They’re really our eyes and ears on these major events.”
– Ryan Askew
The safety of journalists should be one of the top priorities in dangerous environments. Their safety is important for not only journalists, but also the rest of the world. The world relies on their information in order to learn things that they may otherwise be cut off from, especially if governments are idle.
The Israeli government spoke out about this incident, with their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing regret and calling the incident a “tragic mishap”. Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to carry-out a thorough investigation, but the spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is not pleased with this order.
“But these investigations need to yield results. There needs to be justice. We haven’t seen results or accountability measures yet,” OHCHR’s spokesperson said.
Although measures are being made to prevent these tragedies, the measures being taken are not satisfactory for OHCHR, nor are they preventing the deaths in time. In order for real change to be made, real change needs to be made.
