TV men killed in missile strike 'legitimate targets', says Israel
Israel says cameramen were killed because they were 'Hamas operatives'
The unprecedented killing of two cameramen from Gaza's Hamas television station in a targeted missile strike this week raised questions about whom Israel considers to be militant operatives, and thus legitimate targets.
Israel said the expanding Hamas media empire is part of the Islamists' "terrorist operations", although it stopped short of branding everyone working for it as a potential target in its offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers.
Al-Aqsa TV, which employed the two journalists, said they were killed on the job, and it accused Israel of trying to silence those documenting the suffering of Gaza's civilians.
On Wednesday, the funeral procession for Mohammed al-Koumi and Hussam Salama set off from Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, just a few hundred metres from where the Israeli missile had struck their car a day before. Several dozen al-Aqsa TV staffers marched behind the bodies. A wreath sent by Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas read: "With blood we write. With blood we film. They will not be able to silence the truth."
Al-Aqsa TV is the centerpiece of Hamas' increasingly sophisticated media operation, launched in 2004 with a small radio station. Al-Aqsa TV and Radio now have about 400 employees.
Al-Aqsa reporters do not pretend to be objective and clearly work in the service of Hamas, using its lingo and loaded terms in on-air comments.
Al-Koumi and Salama were on assignment Tuesday at Shifa Hospital, the central intake for serious injuries, said Al-Aqsa TV chief Mohammed Thouraya. They left in the late afternoon to head to a feed point to hand over their material when their car was struck, he said.