Video Shows Israeli Shelling of Shujaiya That Killed Gaza Journalist
By Ali Abunimah
31 July, 2014
Electronicintifada.net
On Wednesday, Israeli forces shelled the Shujaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, killing 17 Palestinians at a market where people had gone to shop during what they thought would be a four-hour “humanitarian truce.”
This video uploaded to YouTube shows the shelling. It is titled in Arabic “Shujaiya massacre and the targeting of a journalist and the injury of the Manara News Agency’s photographer.”
At the very beginning of the video a man can be seen wearing a flak jacket, helmet and carrying a camera, as he walks past an ambulance.
Another ambulance speeds into the frame and the man in the flak jacket can be glimpsed again.
Suddenly there is an explosion which sends up dust and smoke, followed by a second explosion. There are screams of horror, anguish and cries for help.
The videographer, whose name is not provided in the video or its description, is knocked to the ground but continues to film as the explosions continue.
The videographer gets up and films the scene around – injured people lying on the ground near the two ambulances, by walls and others hiding in an alley.
Smoke and fire can be seen in the background as shelling continues. The buzzing, likely of Israeli drones, can also be heard.
In the aftermath of the shelling, the video shows the body subsequently identified by media as that of the journalist Rami Rayan lying on the ground, wearing a flak jacket and helmet marked “TV.”
He appears to be the same person briefly glimpsed at the beginning of the video.
One of the distressed survivors, speaking to the camera, indicates to the “press sign” on Rayan’s flak jacket and says to the camera, “He was a journalist! Tell the world! Tell the United Nations! Tell the Arab collaborators!”
The video shows other distressed survivors tending to the injured and, at least in one case, collecting a body.
Since the current assault began on 7 July, Israel has killed at least seven Palestinian journalists and media workers and directly struck at least four media offices.
As of Thursday afternoon in Gaza, the death toll from the Israeli attack stood at 1,385 persons with more than 8,000 injured.
Ali Abunimah is Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.
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