Israeli military forcing hospitals to cover losses: Israeli media

By Hussein Assaf
Source: Israeli Media
8 Dec 2023 00:37
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Several Israeli hospitals revealed that the Israeli army spokesperson demanded that they match their public reports of cases received to his daily statement updating the war's toll.

Israeli soldiers wounded in fighting in the south of occupied Palestine arrive at "Hadassah Ein Kerem" Hospital in occupied al-Quds, October 7, 2023 (Israeli Media)

Israeli media reported on Thursday that the Israeli military spokesperson has imposed new restrictions related to reporting on casualties in the war, including coercing hospitals against announcing the arrival of wounded or dead personnel unless permitted by the army.

The aim is to control the timing of information release at times convenient for the military, Walla! said in its publication.

Hospital representatives commented, "The military spokesperson [Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari] has taken on the role of national morale delegate, with our primary responsibility being towards those receiving treatment."

In a message sent on Tuesday, the head of the media department in Hagari's unit informed hospitals of a new procedure allowing them to issue only one daily statement at 13:00, following the military spokesperson's daily briefing.

According to the new plan, the statement will include data on the last day but will not provide details about injured individuals not previously reported by the spokesperson.

In journalistic terms, the hospitals' allowed statement from now on is a "follow-up" to Hagari's briefing, and its release is conditional on this requirement.

Meanwhile, hospital spokespersons are now required to "present the content of their statement to the military spokesperson's representative permanently stationed in the hospital for quick approval before publication."

As per the news site, Hagari is aware that this violates "press freedom, but claims that the logic behind the new procedure is the desire to maintain the dignity of the injured and their families."

Among the "requests" put forward by the military is to "avoid publishing news hinting at the arrival of injured soldiers before the official announcement by the military spokesperson."

According to the report, the warning and new procedures come after two incidents in the last two days that revealed significant inconsistencies between the statements made by the spokesperson, or lack thereof.

For example, it was discovered that the army never reported the injury of three soldiers from a mortar shell that hit a military site near the "Shtula" settlement near Lebanon on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, the matter only reached the media after the Galilee Medical Center announced in the morning about individuals admitted with minor injuries due to shrapnel - without mentioning that the injured were soldiers or the circumstances of their injury.

In another case, the military spokesperson reported on Sunday that five fighters were lightly injured due to a guided missile launched from Lebanon that hit "Beit Hillel." However, the Ziv Medical Center in Safad reported receiving 12 injured, and after verification, it was found that 11 of them were soldiers.

The news site continued that, according to the procedure, in a hypothetical case where an operation resulted in 10 injuries, nine of whom are soldiers, it will generally be reported by hospitals as having received only one wounded individual.

As expected, the new directives are causing anger among hospital spokespersons, the report noted.

One of them described the situation in a conversation with Walla! saying, "They are essentially blackmailing us," adding, "Perhaps they forgot that we are public hospitals affiliated with the State of Israel."

David Ratner, a spokesperson for Rambam Medical Center, said: "The Israeli military spokesperson has taken on the role of national morale delegate, perhaps due to a void. And this is in addition to his classic role."

"As part of that, the military spokesperson wants to accustom the public and hospital spokespersons to two statements a day, that's it. In this war, they also want to control the entire media field, even everything related to hospitals."

Regarding the message he received on Thursday morning from Hagari's team, Ratner said, "I have a big reservation about the format and I intend to send them a response."

Moreover, Ratner also recalls the media environment of 2023 in which he and his colleagues operate.

"Accounts publishing breaking news via social media report in real time about the arrival of injured at hospitals, especially in Haifa, as when helicopters land at Rambam Hospital, hundreds of thousands of residents in the city see it."

Sharing the frustration, Ohad Yehezkeli, spokesperson and marketing director at the Assuta Ashdod Medical Center, said that the procedure is excessive, hinting at continued independent work on the matter.

In a more forward description of the situation, Yehezkel said that the army "politely asked us to lie for them."

"They ask us to hide information or distort news. They told me [to] state that only civilians arrived... They told one hospital spokesperson not to issue a statement because not all families were informed," he added.

Meanwhile, after the hospital spokesperson "investigated the army's claims and asked around in the department among the soldiers and relatives who were near their families, he discovered that everyone knew."