Israel has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution points since October 7, 2023.
Contractors from the United States guarding a Gaza aid centre reportedly sought the whereabouts and identity of slain Al Jazeera journalist, Mohamed Salama, by interrogating a person he had interviewed for an article before Israel killed him on Monday.
The Middle East Eye (MEE)—the outlet Salama wrote for in addition to his work for Al Jazeera—published an investigation on Wednesday that revealed the findings over the interrogation.
The articles Salama had written included major investigations that he anonymously published for security purposes.
A source from an article Salama had written told him, days before Israel killed him, about their brief detention and interrogation by the U.S. contractors.
“The source would not have been in contact with me unless they thought something was deeply wrong,” Salama told his colleagues, as quoted by MEE.
Israel killed Salama along with five other journalists on Monday in a double-tap airstrike that targeted the Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
The journalists are among 21 people killed during the attack, which Qatar condemned and described as “a new episode in the ongoing series of heinous crimes” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
MEE asked Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, the two firms working at the U.S. and Israel backed aid distribution sites in Gaza, if they were involved in the interrogation of Salama’s source or shared information on Palestinian journalists’ identity with Israel.
While firms have yet to respond to MEE’s request for a comment, the Israel-U.S. backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) responded to its inquiry. In its response, GHF dismissed the claims over the source’s interrogation as “absurd and completely false”.
The GHF began operating in Gaza in May while Israel continued to block the entry of vital aid into the besieged territory, resulting in famine.
The GHF’s sites have been widely described by the United Nations and activists as “death traps” for Palestinians seeking aid. Israel has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution points since October 7, 2023.
Salama had reported on the attacks at the aid sites and shared testimonies from witnesses.
The articles included one story published earlier this month uncovering the horrific killing of 10-year-old Abdulrahim “Amir” Al-Jarabe’a while trying to receive food from a GHF centre.
The killing of Salama and the other journalists this week came under Israel’s wider pattern of deliberately targeting the press covering the almost two-year Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 246 journalists despite global calls for the protection of the press on the ground.
The journalists are among 62,895 people Israel has killed in the besieged enclave, with thousands others trapped under the rubble.
Israel has repeatedly used allegations over the journalists being affiliated with Hamas to justify the killings, including the latest massacre at the Nasser Hospital.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially described the attack as a “tragic mishap” before occupation forces issued a statement alleging the facility had “a Hamas camera” without providing concrete evidence.
