Middle East Eye editor writes to British PM over killing of MEE journalists
Journalist Mohammad Salama who was killed in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital on 25 August 2025
Imran Mulla reports in Middle East Eye on 27 August 2025:
Middle East Eye’s editor-in-chief, David Hearst, has written to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a series of questions after Israel killed two MEE journalists in Gaza on Monday morning.
Mohamed Salama and Ahmed Abu Aziz were killed as they responded to an Israeli attack on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
At least three other journalists were among the 20 Palestinians murdered in the attacks, including Mariam Dagga, a freelance reporter who worked with several media outlets including the Associated Press and Independent Arabia; Hussam al-Masri, a photojournalist with the Reuters news agency; and freelance reporter Moaz Abu Taha.
MEE is a UK-based organisation. In Hearst’s open letter on Wednesday, he tells the prime minister that “Middle East Eye has information which directly links the assassination of these journalists to several of the stories they wrote, which caused the Israeli authorities considerable embarrassment”.
Hearst adds: “MEE knows the full sequence of events which led to the targeting of these journalists, the stories they wrote which attracted Israel’s attention, the means, the location and the time at which Israeli authorities obtained their identities. “We will not divulge these details for fear of endangering the lives of survivors of the attacks.”
Journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz, who was killed in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on 25 August 2025 in a selfie
MEE reported earlier on Thursday that US contractors at a Gaza aid centre interrogated a source used by Salama in one of his major investigations for MEE, seeking information about the reporter’s identity and whereabouts before he was killed.
In his letter, Hearst asks Starmer whether he will demand an international investigation into Israel’s repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza. He further asks whether the Foreign Office has summoned the Israeli ambassador over this week’s attacks.
Hearst questions whether the British government “hold any information on the attack gathered as a result of surveillance flights over Gaza” – and if so, whether it will provide that information to the International Criminal Court.