Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos
محمود اسليم البسوس
Killed by Israel using an Airstrike
Killed by Israel on 15 Mar 2025
Archived Videos on TikTok Genocide
Links
- In Gaza, journalists filming with drones are in the Israeli army’s crosshairs
- Mahmoud Samir Misbah Al-Basous
- Stories from the Sky... An Investigation into Israel's Targeting of Drone Journalists in Gaza
- Israel Leveled Gaza — Then Killed the Drone Journalists Who Showed it to the World
Archivist Notes
Full name: Mahmoud Sameer Slayem Al-Basos | محمود سمير اسليم البسوس
(In the Forbidden stories article, he is called Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos, and he is referenced in https://www.shireen.ps/ as Mahmoud Samir Misbah Al-Basos, 25y/o | محمود سمير مصباح البسوس )
• Bassous started collaborating with Shadi Al-Tabatibi on Drone and photography journalism. Tabatibi began assigning him photography tasks, and Bassous also started working with international media like Reuters and Anadolu Agency.
• Killed in two successive airstrikes against a crew of journalists and 8 aid workers affiliated with the UK-based Al-Khair Foundation who were documenting relief efforts led by this charitable Foundation in Beit Lahia.
• In early March, during the ceasefire, Forbidden Stories asked Mahmoud Samir Isleem Al-Basos to film Gaza. The idea was to continue the work of journalists killed or injured during the war while enabling readers to visualize the unprecedented scale of destruction through detailed 3D maps.
• That morning, two Israeli air strikes killed at least seven other people. Among them were aid workers and cameramen dispatched by Al-Khair. The NGO explained that it was using a drone to film the preparation of a Ramadan meal and the future extension of a refugee camp.
• According to his cousin, quoted by the CPJ, he was wearing his press vest and helmet.
• The Israeli army claimed that these strikes were aimed at “terrorists”—two of whom were operating a drone—and issued an error-filled list of names and photos. Mahmoud Samir Isleem Al-Basos is neither mentioned nor pictured in the list of “terrorists.” Instead, (Investigation led by Forbidden stories (gathered 15 international medias) found a name that resembles his, belonging to an individual described by the Israeli army as “a Hamas terrorist operating under journalistic cover.” Based on their research, the individual named by the army has no direct link with Al-Basos and was not killed in the strike. The military also denounced a connection between the drone used in Beit Lahia and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad without providing any evidence.
• According to the journalists who knew him, as well as the Al-Khair Foundation and a Hamas representative we interviewed, Al-Basos had no affiliation with Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• Bellingcat have also geolocated the two strikes in Beit Lahia: the first around two kilometers from the Israeli border and an Israeli army post and the second around three kilometers away. D drone at this distance doesn't represent a threat to the Israeli army, as it claims. When asked on two separate occasions to provide evidence supporting its accusations, the Israeli military stated that it would “not elaborate on the published statements.” More generally, they said it “categorically reject[ed] the allegation of a systemic attack on journalists.”
• “Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing any credible evidence,” explained Doja Daoud from the CPJ. “We know that this practice endangers journalists and erodes public trust in Palestinian journalists reporting from Gaza.” The CPJ has just added Al-Basos to its list of journalists killed by the Israeli army and refers to his case as “murder.”
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Picture by courtesy of Shadi Al-Tabatibi