deutsche Welle

Journalisten in der Ukraine: Bespitzelt und unter Druck

Marina Baranovska

23.01.202423. Januar 2024

In der Ukraine werden Journalisten überwacht und mit rufschädigenden Aufnahmen unter Druck gesetzt. Können Behörden aufdecken, wer dahinter steckt?

https://p.dw.com/p/4baxi

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Ermittlungen zum Abhörskandal dürfen die Medienfreiheit nicht einschränkenBild: Markus Ulmer/picture-alliance

Mitarbeiter des in der Ukraine bekanntesten investigativen journalistischen Projekts Bihus.Info wurden überwacht und abgehört. Ein im Internet veröffentlichtes Video, das zeigt, wie Angehörige des Teams während einer Neujahrsfeier angeblich Drogen konsumieren, schlug ein wie eine Bombe. Außerdem sind in dem Video, das am 16. Januar auf dem wenig bekannten YouTube-Kanal "Narodna Prawda" (Volkswahrheit) erschien, Ausschnitte aus Gesprächen und Telefonaten zu hören, in denen Mitarbeiter von Bihus.Info den Kauf von Drogen besprechen.

Bihus.Info wurde 2013 von einer Gruppe Journalisten unter der Leitung von Denis Bihus gegründet. Für Aufsehen sorgten zum Beispiel ihre Enthüllungen darüber wie die Ukraine Kraftwerke finanziert, die sich in den russisch besetzten Gebieten befinden und dem Bruder des stellvertretenden Leiters des Präsidentenbüros, Rostyslaw Schurma, gehören. Auch die Aufdeckung von Korruptionsfällen und Machenschaften Beamter sowie Recherchen zu Abhöraufnahmen des prorussischen Oligarchen Wiktor Medwedtschuk, bei denen es um Verbindungen zum ukrainischen Ex-Präsidenten Petro Poroschenko und dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin ging, fanden viel Beachtung.

"Eine systematische Langzeitüberwachung"

Denis Bihus bestätigte, dass in dem Video seine Kameramänner zu sehen waren. Diese seien inzwischen entlassen worden. Das Bihus.Info-Team führt unterdessen eigene Untersuchungen zu dem Vorfall durch. In einem am 19. Januar auf der Website des Projekts veröffentlichten Video sagt Denis Bihus, dass mindestens 30 Personen an der Installation von Überwachungskameras in dem Gebäude außerhalb der Stadt, wo die Neujahrsfeier stattfand, beteiligt gewesen sein müssten.

Der Leiter von Bihus.Info sagte ferner, dass Angehörige seines Teams mehr als ein Jahr lang überwacht worden seien. Darauf würden verschiedene Ausschnitte aus mehreren abgehörten Telefongesprächen der Journalisten, die mehrere Monate auseinander lägen, hinweisen. "Dies sieht nicht nach einem spontanen Racheakt für irgendwelche Recherchen aus. Es handelt sich um eine systematische Langzeitüberwachung und Verfolgung, um die Arbeit des Teams, die es über Jahre geleistet hat, zu diskreditieren", unterstrich er.

Geheimdienst nimmt Untersuchungen auf

Die Überwachung der Journalisten und der Eingriff in ihre Privatsphäre hat die überwältigende Mehrheit der Abgeordneten des ukrainischen Parlaments verurteilt. So forderten die Ausschüsse für Meinungsfreiheit und für Humanitäres die Strafverfolgungsbehörden auf, die illegalen Abhörmaßnahmen zu untersuchen. Der Ausschuss für Meinungsfreiheit wandte sich direkt an den Geheimdienst der Ukraine (SBU). Sein Vorsitzender, der Abgeordnete der Partei "Holos" (Stimme), Jaroslaw Jurtschyschyn, sagte der DW: "Dies ist die einzige Strafverfolgungsbehörde, die illegale Abhörmaßnahmen erkennen und anderen Stellen die Genehmigung für solche Abhörmaßnahmen erteilen kann. Daher sind jene Maßnahmen entweder illegal, was in die Ermittlungszuständigkeit des SBU fällt oder es handelt sich um Maßnahmen, die der SBU genehmigt hat."

Der SBU leitete daraufhin Untersuchungen ein - wegen "illegalen Erwerbs, illegaler Verbreitung oder illegalem Einsatz spezieller technischer Mittel zur Informationsbeschaffung". Die Behörde erklärte, "die transparente und ungehinderte Arbeit unabhängiger professioneller Medien ist eine wichtige Voraussetzung für die Entwicklung der Ukraine zu einem demokratischen Staat". Die Überwachung bedürfe einer rechtlichen Bewertung, unabhängig davon, ob in den Aufnahmen mutmaßliche Rechtsverstöße wegen des Umgangs mit Betäubungsmitteln veröffentlicht worden seien oder nicht, so der SBU auf Telegram.

Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskyj: "Druck auf Journalisten ist inakzeptabel"Bild: Efrem Lukatsky/AP/picture alliance

Der ukrainische Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskyj sagte in einem Interview mit dem britischen Fernsehsender Channel 4 News, dass er den Chef des SBU, Wasyl Maljuk, persönlich eingeladen und auch Einzelheiten vom Generalstaatsanwalt erhalten habe. Selenskyj verlangt, die illegale Überwachung von Journalisten müsse gründlich untersucht und die Verantwortlichen ermittelt werden. Laut Selenskyj sei wegen der illegalen Überwachung ein Strafverfahren eröffnet worden. 

Die Journalisten von Bihus.Info reichten ihrerseits Anzeige bei der Polizei ein, woraufhin ein weiteres Strafverfahren eingeleitet wurde. Derzeit ist die Website, auf der das Video mit jenen diskreditierenden Aufnahmen veröffentlicht wurde, nicht mehr zugänglich. Auch auf YouTube ist das Video nicht mehr zu sehen. Bihus.Info zufolge wurde es gelöscht, nachdem bekannt geworden war, dass die Polizei ermittelt.

Reaktionen ukrainischer Medienvertreter

Vertreter des Verbandes ukrainischer Medien, Journalisten und öffentlicher Organisationen "Mediaruch", der sich für die Einhaltung journalistischer Standards einsetzt, sprechen ebenfalls von systematischem Druck auf Journalisten und verlangen von Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskyj, die Ermittlungen zum Abhörskandal persönlich zu kontrollieren.

Die Leiterin des Instituts für Masseninformation (IMI), Oksana Romanjuk, erinnert an die Zeiten der Herrschaft von Ex-Präsident Viktor Janukowitsch, als "gezielte Jagden auf Medien, Überwachung und geheime Videoaufnahmen" keine Seltenheit gewesen seien. Sollten die Behörden nicht entschieden auf das reagieren, was passiert sei, würde dies "sehr schlecht für die Ukraine als demokratischen Staat" sein, so Romanjuk. Medienfreiheit ist eine der Voraussetzungen für den EU-Beitritt der Ukraine. 

Der Chef des Nationalen Journalistenverbandes der Ukraine, Serhij Tomilenko, forderte unterdessen die Behörden auf, Journalisten zu schützen. "Wir müssen zeigen, dass wir ein Land sind, das Diskreditierungskampagnen, wie man sie bislang in Russland und anderen autoritären Ländern gesehen hat, auf keinen Fall zulässt", sagte er.

Adaption aus dem Russischen: Markian Ostaptschuk

Neuer Text

By Mariya Knight, Gul Tuysuz and Daria Tarasova-Markina, CNN

3 minute read

Updated 1:12 PM EST, Sun January 28, 2024

A queue of trucks stands on the road in Przemysl, southeast Poland, 08 November 2023, waiting to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in Medyka.

Darek Delmanowicz/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

  CNN — 

More than 20,000 trucks from Poland and Ukraine are blocked at three major border crossings as striking Polish drivers protest an EU deal that allows Ukrainian trucks unlimited access to the bloc.

On Monday, Polish carriers began blocking the movement of trucks along the three largest border crossing points between the two countries: Korczowa-Krakowiec, Hrebenne-Rava-Ruska and Dorohusk-Yahodyn, Ukrainian state media Ukrinform reported.

“Currently, more than 20,000 vehicles are blocked on both sides. The economy of not only Ukraine or Poland suffers losses, but also of other countries that cannot transport goods,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Restoration said in a statement Thursday.

Truck drivers from Ukraine have been exempt from seeking permits to cross the Polish border since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, Polish drivers claim that Russian and Belarusian entities have been setting up Polish outfits, according to Reuters.

The strikes follow a spat between the neighboring countries earlier this year over cheap Ukrainian grain, which would normally be shipped from the country’s now-occupied Black Sea ports, but instead flowed into Europe through Poland.

 Russia parades Ukrainian war prisoners as ‘volunteers’ for its army in apparent violation of international law

The influx of product undercut Polish farmers, leading to a now-lapsed temporary EU ban. Poland does not allow Ukrainian grain to be sold in its domestic market.

Poland’s support has been essential to Ukraine’s war effort; since February 2022, several million displaced people left Ukraine and into Poland, and several billions’ worth of NATO military equipment has been rushed in through Polish territory.

But fatigue is setting in in Poland and sympathy waning – as was apparent during the country’s recent election campaign, in which right-wing parties sought to capitalize on anti-Ukrainian sentiment.

The International Transport Association of Ukraine said that Poles “are not satisfied with the high competition that developed after the liberalization of international transportation between Ukraine and the EU countries.” Therefore, one of the demands is the cancellation of visa-free transport, Ukrinform noted.

Serhii Derkach, a deputy minister at Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry, told Ukrinform that this demand is “impossible to fulfill.”

“It is impossible to cancel the agreement on the liberalization of transportation, because it is a matter of bilateral agreements between the EU and Ukraine. And Poland cannot do anything unilaterally,” he said.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zvarych called the protests “a knife in the back” of Ukraine, which has seen transportation routes, including airspace and ports, severely limited since the invasion began.

According to the Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspilne, the organizers of the protest said they plan to let one truck per hour to go through the border.

The protesters do not plan to obstruct the movement of the trucks that are transporting humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Suspilne noted, adding that the protesters also said they have permission to hold a picket until January 3.

How Orban’s ties to Putin are putting European aid to Ukraine at risk

Analysis by Luke McGee, CNN

6 minute read

Published 12:05 AM EST, Sun January 28, 2024

Ukraine says it needs three things to win the war

 00:50   - Source: CNN

  CNN — 

From the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Hungary has been the weakest link in the West’s response. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has held up Kyiv’s membership negotiations with the EU, slow-walked aid deals and cast doubt on Ukraine’s capacity to defeat Russia.

That’s why there’s so much attention on a meeting on Monday between the foreign ministers of Hungary and Ukraine.

While both countries have been deliberately opaque about the purpose of the meeting in public statements, Western officials privately hope that it will provide some clarity on whether Hungary will drop its veto on a €50bn European Union support package for Ukraine that was supposed to be signed off in December.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at the time the reason he blocked the funds was because it was wrong for money in the EU budget to go outside the bloc.

Critics of Orban have pointed out that his objections could have something to do with the fact that Brussels is holding out on giving Hungary money from the very same budget because it has breached the EU’s rule of law requirements – fundamental values enshrined in the bloc’s treaties. Orban and members of his government have repeatedly denied that there is any connection between the two, or that they have breached EU rules.

But those same critics also note that Orban has a uniquely close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many Western officials believe that Orban is leveraging that relationship in order to bully his European allies by playing the part of a Kremlin stooge: Act tough on support for Ukraine, a key priority for most of Europe, in exchange for concessions in other areas.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, is welcomed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as he arrives for a NATO summit, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, on July 11, 2018.

Francois Mori/AFP via Getty Images

It’s no secret that Hungary is increasingly an uncomfortable bedfellow for its partners in the EU and NATO. Over the past few years, Orban has come to blows with his European counterparts over all kinds of issues, ranging from the rights of LGBTQ+ citizens and migrants to undermining the judiciary.

He has stretched the rules of the bloc to breaking point and engaged in brinksmanship with Brussels many times – and quite often walked away with concessions or fudged deals where he got his own way.

The crisis in Ukraine, however, has shone an ever brighter light on the differences between Hungary and its Western allies.

Hungary has frustrated European and US-led efforts to support Ukraine for the best part of two years. Orban has dragged his heels on EU sanctions against Russia and the supply of weapons and financial aid to Ukraine, and played an obstructive role in Kyiv’s bid to join the EU.

He has not only opposed Kyiv’s similar bid to join NATO, but has been a major roadblock to Finland and Sweden joining the alliance. It is hard to view his opposition to the Scandinavian countries joining NATO without considering that enlargement of the defensive alliance is a key grievance of Putin’s.

Orban finally dropped his objections, allowing Finland to join NATO last year, but is now the final holdout on ratifying the Swedish bid, following the Turkish parliament’s vote to approve it this week. Orban said shortly after the Turkish vote that Hungary in fact supported Sweden’s NATO bid, though there is no firm timetable on when there will be a similar ratification in Hungary’s parliament.

The unlocking of Europe’s €50bn in aid to Ukraine is by far the most pressing issue ahead of the foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, because EU leaders are set to meet again on February 1 to have another go at passing the package. Western officials tell CNN that even a small indication behind the scenes of what it would take for Hungary to drop its veto would be a huge win.

However, the majority of officials who spoke to CNN fear Hungary’s latest obstructions are just a taste of what is to come and are braced for further Orban tantrums that will slow Western support for Ukraine down the line.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Orban converse during a signing ceremony of several agreements between the two countries on February 17, 2015 in Budapest, Hungary.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

There are some optimists, mostly diplomats, who say that while Orban is playing to his domestic audience in public, he has ultimately supported all the previous EU and NATO measures, even if he did so through gritted teeth. “A lot of the public messaging has been bad, for sure. But weirdly behind the scenes it hasn’t been that bad,” a European security official told CNN.

The official added that Hungary has a much closer relationship with Russia than other European countries and politically Orban needs to “signal that he is not a NATO stooge” to his audiences at home and in Moscow. “If an angry tweet is the price we pay to move forward, that’s OK.”

But other officials are less generous. They believe that Orban is leveraging his relationship with Putin in order to hold the EU and NATO to ransom by disrupting a united front. It doesn’t matter, they say, that Orban comes round to most things in the end, but that he creates space for a perception that the West is not in total lockstep.

“It is true that it is a lot about the show with the Hungarians. They mostly give in at the end. But time and again, they have blocked important action to support Ukraine and strengthen the Western alliance,” a German foreign affairs official told CNN.

“Whether it is about EU funding for arms support to Ukraine, about NATO expansion in Scandinavia or simply peddling Russian disinformation about the war, they constantly disrupt Western unity.”

Western officials increasingly see themselves in an information war with the Kremlin. Information wars are sometimes not much more complicated than zero-sum games. Something that can be spun as a crack in unity is seen as bad for the West, ergo, is good for Putin. It might sound overly simplistic, but this is how many officials and diplomats see things.

Orban gestures as he talks to the media after arriving at the European headquarters for the EU-Western Balkans summit, in Brussels, on December 14, 2023.

John Thys/AFP/Getty Images

The Hungary issue is complex because of that simple truth. Orban knows exactly how valuable his support is to the West so can hold allied states over a barrel, even though Hungary is a net beneficiary within both the EU and NATO.

And he also knows that, more than anything, even the slightest hint of disagreement between himself and these institutions is valuable to Putin. For evidence of that, you need only look at Russian state media coverage of Orban’s run-ins with his allies.

For both these reasons, it makes political sense for Orban to sit tight for as long as possible, as history has taught him that this is the way to get concessions.

None of this, of course, helps Ukraine. As the war drags into its third year next month, Ukrainians more than ever need clarity on what support they will have from the West, especially in a US presidential election year.

Political psychodramas are a damaging distraction when you are under invasion. But that is what the vast majority of European officials think we are likely to see in the coming months.

And, as the situation becomes more desperate and unstable, there will be more and more opportunities for Orban to create trouble – and win greater political rewards for himself.

She was fleeing with her grandson, who was holding a white flag. Then she was shot

By Clarissa Ward, Brent Swails, Kareem Khadder and Eliza Mackintosh, CNN

10 minute read

Updated 1:08 PM EST, Fri January 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: The video above contains graphic and disturbing images. Viewer discretion is advised.

 Istanbul CNN — 

Sara Khreis replays the last day she spent with her mother over and over in her mind.

Their family had spent weeks agonizing over whether to flee as Israeli troops moved into Gaza City’s al-Rimal neighborhood, tanks rolling past their front door and a terrifying cacophony of bombs, quadcopter drones and gunfire thundering all around them.

After two nights of bombardment so intense they thought it might blow their home apart, they were resolved: they had to go.

“We woke up on November 12, the day that I will never forget my whole life. I remember every detail in it, minutes, hours, seconds,” Sara, 18, told CNN in a recent interview, holding back tears.

That morning was messy, she said. More than 20 people, relatives and neighbors, had holed up at their house as the war worsened. Sara’s 57-year-old mother, Hala, always so focused on taking care of everyone but herself, cooked a quick breakfast amid a flurry of packing up bags and made time to pray. Suddenly, they heard their neighbors outside screaming that an evacuation route had been organized: “Come on, get out, come on, get out!”

Sara with her mother, Hala. "My mother was all my life. My mother's life was dedicated to me and my siblings and my father. To her grandchildren, she was the loving 'Teta,'" Sara said.

Khreis Family

The next thing Sara knew, they were throwing on shoes, and rushing out the door. She had a brief argument with her mother – now agonizing to recount – over whether she could help to carry her bag. Then they were on the street outside, joining a wave of other people holding white flags aloft: a universal symbol of surrender.

Out in front, a few paces ahead of the others, Hala was walking with her grandson, Tayem, then 4, holding hands as they navigated a street littered with debris, a white flag in his other hand. Seconds later, a shot rang out and Hala slumped to the ground.

That unthinkable moment was captured on camera. The video surfaced earlier this month in a report by UK-based news website Middle East Eye. Watching it makes Sara and her siblings feel sick.

The clip of Hala’s killing is one of a growing number that show unarmed civilians holding white flags being shot dead in Gaza. The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said that they are investigating nine such incidents. CNN has examined four cases, including that of Hala Khreis.

CNN made multiple attempts to sit down with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to share its findings. They told CNN on Friday that “the incident is being examined,” and, when pressed further, said they were referring to al-Mawasi. They did not say if the other incidents are being investigated.

The incident in al-Mawasi, a coastal town in southern Gaza previously designated a “safe zone” by the IDF, took place earlier this week. Ramzi Abu Sahloul, 51, was among a group of five men, their hands raised and brandishing a white flag. Sahloul told Ahmed Hijazi, a Palestinian journalist, that they were trying to get back to a house where his brother was being held back by Israeli soldiers to plead for his release. Moments after interviewing him, Hijazi filmed two Israeli tanks in the distance, beyond a raised bank, and then Sahloul being fatally shot in the chest. The impact of the first round is visible in the footage and appears to come from the direction of the tanks.

Among the most widely reported of the incidents CNN looked at was the shooting of three Israeli hostages, whom the IDF admitted to killing, mistakenly believing their surrender was a trap. The IDF has repeatedly claimed that it is doing everything in its power to avoid harming civilians, but its soldiers shot hostages waving a white flag, violating its rules of engagement and raising questions about those efforts.

Another video, previously reported by CNN, shows a young man on the ground after being shot while trying to evacuate Gaza City. His father, holding a white flag, could be seen crying over his body. The footage doesn’t show the moment he was shot, and the IDF did not reply to CNN’s request for comment.

My mother was going to be 58 years old on December 30, and had her grandson with her. So why would you shoot her? What’s between you and her? You made us feel like it’s safe to leave, we had white flags in our hands as instructed.”

Sara Khreis

That the footage of Hala’s killing exists at all is a mixed blessing, say her children, who spoke with CNN from Gaza and Turkey. They hope that it could serve as evidence in a possible future investigation into her death. But, on the other hand, they say it has forced them to relive the devastating day their mother was stolen from them over and over again, searching for clues to questions they fear will never be answered.

An old family photo of Hala with her grandson, Tayem, who is now 5-years-old. They were holding hands when she was shot.

Khreis Family

“My mother was going to be 58 years old on December 30, and had her grandson with her. So why would you shoot her? What’s between you and her? You made us feel like it’s safe to leave, we had white flags in our hands as instructed,” Sara told CNN in an interview from Istanbul, where she has joined her Turkish fiancée after fleeing through Rafah Crossing. “Nobody knows. Nobody knows.”

Sara and the rest of her family say that Hala was shot by Israeli forces despite what they described as an agreement to provide them with safe passage out of the besieged neighborhood.

The IDF has not commented on the family’s claim, but satellite imagery and photos from the same period reviewed by CNN show that Israeli troops were stationed in the area, including at a school just 200 meters (about 650 feet) down the road, to the west of where Hala was killed. Hala’s family said tanks were also positioned on the road in front of her, to the south.

The Khreis family say they were told that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had organized an evacuation route on a road running south, but as they fled, the message changed to go east. Hala didn’t hear the shouts calling for her to turn until it was too late.

The ICRC said it had never agreed to help with the evacuation, underlining the challenges families face in getting clear information about how to escape. “Given how dangerous and unsafe the situation was and continues to be, it’s not within the ICRC’s role to give instructions on evacuation, as we would not be able to guarantee their safety,” the humanitarian organization said in a statement. “According to international humanitarian law (IHL), it is the responsibility of the warring parties to ensure safe passage to civilians irrespective of the arrangements for evacuations, safe zones, or humanitarian pauses. Even if people chose to stay, they remain protected.”

The story of how the Khreis family decided to flee sheds light on the confusion shrouding evacuation plans and the impossible choices that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have had to make as fighting has drawn closer to their homes, shattering lives, breaking up families and destroying dreams for the future.

Hala walking with her son, Mohammad, smiling and waving to the camera.

‘My mother was all my life; she was my friend and my everything’

The months before the war broke out were happy ones for Hala and her family. Having retired four years earlier as an Arabic teacher after over 35 years working at a local school, Hala and her husband had bought a new home and were settling into the joys of watching their children and grandchildren grow up.

Sara had just gotten engaged to her boyfriend, Faisel, and was beginning to plan their wedding, organizing details with her mother for the extended family to travel to Turkey for the ceremony. Hala’s 22-year-old son, Mohammad, had graduated from university, and the family held a big party at one of their favorite restaurants to mark the occasion. Hala had been intent on helping Mohammad, her only son, find his life partner. They had planned to announce his engagement on October 7. Then everything changed.

Hala clapping and smiling next to her son, Mohammad, at a family celebration for his graduation.

“My mother was all my life; she was my friend and my everything. I didn’t do anything without consulting her or taking her opinion, she was with me in every step,” Sara said, swiping through family photos and holding back tears. “We all had plans, dreams, goals and it all included my mother. They stole our mom from us, all these dreams are now gone.”

Nour, another of Hala’s daughters, who is in Rafah, said that she had begged her mother for weeks to flee, but she refused, worried about how she and the rest of the family might survive the journey south amid reports that evacuation areas were being hit. Nour had fled after the Israeli military dropped leaflets urging Gaza City residents to evacuate to the south in mid-October.

We all had plans, dreams, goals and it all included my mother. They stole our mom from us, all these dreams are now gone.”

Sara Khreis

By the time the rest of the family decided to evacuate on November 12, the fighting had become relentless. But Sara said her mother seemed calm. As everyone prepared to leave, packing up their belongings, she was quietly reading the Quran. “She said if we are lucky to be part of this world, we would live. And if we die, we are martyrs,” Mohammad recalled.

When they walked out onto the street, there was uncertainty about which direction they should go, with Israeli forces positioned around the neighborhood. At the intersection, some members of the group said a soldier had waved them towards Palestine Stadium, but Mohammad wasn’t sure. “So I started calling on my mother, ‘come over here, come over here,’ but she didn’t hear, and she was walking to her fate,” Mohammad said, pausing to take a deep breath. “There were sounds of gunshots and she fell to the ground. I was shocked. I stood in place, frozen, and didn’t understand what had happened.”

He ran to Hala, a gaping gunshot wound in her chest, and called for others to help him carry her from the street. But they were terrified of the Israeli tanks, which Mohammad said he saw directly in front of the group, to the south; Israeli troops were also located to the west, satellite imagery showed. His father and a neighbor rushed to join him, dragging Hala back to their house where they tried in vain to resuscitate her.

Tayem, right, with his mother, Heba, left, and grandmother, Hala, center, who the children called Teta. "Honestly, Teta, God bless her soul, she was the happiness maker for the children... they have lost a treasure in their life,” Heba said. “When I meet with him (Tayem) I don’t know how I am going to explain that there is no Teta anymore.”

Khreis Family

In the turmoil, Hala’s grandson, Tayem, went missing. At first, his mother, Heba, who was in the back of the crowd, thought that her son had been shot alongside Hala. But then, when he wasn’t on the ground, and they couldn’t find him, she panicked. Heba and her husband, Youssuf Abdel A’atti, raced up and down the street asking people if they had seen Tayem, if they had seen a small child.

“His mother started asking me, ‘Where is Tayem, where is Tayem?’ And no one knows where Tayem is. We tried everything and called everyone, at this time my mother-in-law was a martyr, so we wanted to calm ourselves down at least to know where Tayem is,” Abdel A’atti said.

I felt like I was in a nightmare, until now I feel like I am still in denial from the whole thing, I am still waiting for my mom to send a message in the group chat to check on us, ‘How are you girls? What’s new? What did you do today?’”

Sara Khreis

It wasn’t until hours later, as the family was at home grieving Hala, that someone called to say Tayem had continued south with a group of acquaintances – a small comfort amid the horror. Heba and her husband are still waiting to be reunited with their son, who recently celebrated his fifth birthday without them. He is now in Rafah, southern Gaza, with his uncle, Mohammad.

“I am worried about him. Imagine the continuous shelling, and they claim these areas are safe. And now he is supposed to be in the safest area and every day we hear that there are strikes and shelling and targeting in Rafah,” Heba said. “His birthday came during the war, and he turned 5 years, and I didn’t see him … his younger brother every day is asking about Tayem, ‘Where is Tayem? Where is Teta?’” using a nickname for his grandmother.

The family later buried Hala outside their house, in a small sandy alleyway. They hope to go back to be able to give her a proper burial when the war is over and are calling for an investigation into her killing.

A photo Sara took of her mother on the family's land. "When I look at her pictures I feel like she is with me," Sara said. "Until this moment I am still waiting for her to send me a message to ask about me and see how I am doing."

Khreis Family

“I felt like I was in a nightmare, until now I feel like I am still in denial from the whole thing, I am still waiting for my mom to send a message in the group chat to check on us, ‘How are you girls? What’s new? What did you do today?’” Sara said.

She wants the world to know who her mother was: a devoted grandmother, a mother who still made Sara sandwiches to take to university for lunch, a retired teacher beloved by her students. “My mother was very loving, caring and giving… she had many amazing traits. I want to be exactly like her.”

Update: CNN flew to Israel to sit down with the IDF this week, offering to share the findings of its investigation, including video evidence, in an interview on or off camera. They declined, but provided this statement after CNN published its report on Friday:

“CNN refused to provide the footage in question prior to the broadcasting of the article, as the IDF requested to receive in order to thoroughly examine the incident and provide any sort of comprehensive response. CNN’s hesitancy to share the materials discloses the partial nature of their report, doing a disservice to the complex nature of the operational reality on the ground. The incident is being examined.”

The statement did not specify which of the incidents in CNN’s investigation they were examining, but, when pressed further, the IDF said they were referring to al-Mawasi. They did not say if the other incidents are being investigated, or acknowledge CNN’s attempts to share its findings before publishing.

CNN’s Scott McWhinnie, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Oscar Featherstone contributed to this report.

Related

sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on January 7, 2024.  CNN — 

More than 40 senior former Israeli national security officials, celebrated scientists and prominent business leaders have sent a letter to Israel’s president and speaker of parliament demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be removed from office for posing what they say is an “existential” threat to the country.

The signatories on the letter include four former directors of Israel’s foreign and domestic security services, two former heads of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and three Nobel Prize winners.

The letter blasts the coalition Netanyahu assembled to form the most right-wing government ever in Israel, along with his highly controversial efforts to overhaul Israel’s judiciary that they say led to security lapses that resulted in the October 7 attacks, the deadliest day in Israel’s history.

“We believe that Netanyahu bears primary responsibility for creating the circumstances leading to the brutal massacre of over 1,200 Israelis and others, the injury of over 4,500, and the kidnapping of more than 230 individuals, of whom over 130 are still held in Hamas captivity,” it reads. “The victim’s blood is on Netanyahu’s hands.”

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The letter was sent to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday and to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana on Friday.

Netanyahu’s popularity has fallen dramatically since starting his sixth term as prime minister, just over a year ago. Critics have blasted his judicial reform efforts – which threatened to trigger a constitutional crisis and divided the country, with months of massive, regular demonstrations.

“Leaders of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas,” the letter says, “openly praised what they correctly saw as a destabilizing and erosive process of Israel’s stability, led by Netanyahu, and seized the opportunity to harm and damage Israel’s security.”

Among the 43 signatories are former IDF chiefs Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz, Tamir Pardo and Danny Yatom, who ran the Mossad intelligence agency, and Nadav Argaman and Yaakov Peri, who were directors of the domestic security service, Shin Bet.

Former CEOs, ambassadors, government officials and three Nobel laureates for chemistry - Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Dan Shechtman - also signed the letter.

A poll released this week by Israel’s Channel 13 suggests that Netanyahu’s political party, Likud, would now come in a distant second if elections were held today. The frontrunner in the poll was the National Unity party led by former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, currently a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet.

The next elections aren’t planned until late 2026, though there have been protests and calls for early elections, including from one of Israel’s main opposition leaders, Yair Lapid.

“The situations that brought Israel to elections beforehand are almost nothing in comparison to what Israel is going through now,” said Haim Tomer, a longtime Mossad officer who retired after heading the agency’s intelligence division and who signed the letter demanding Netanyahu’s removal.

“Everybody understands that Netanyahu is incompetent to lead Israel,” Tomer told CNN

Ronen Zvulun/AFP/Getty Images