Add NBC to the list of news organizations that have shown a clip of two doctors, one of whom is the controversial pro-9/11 Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, supposedly trying to revive a deceased Palestinian boy at Shifa Hospital in Gaza – a scene which some critics charge appears staged. Last week, on the Sunday, January 4, NBC Nightly News, correspondent Richard Engel filed a report in which he recounted the story of a 12-year-old boy, Mahmoud Basrowi, the brother of "Ashraf, a Gaza-based television producer contracted by NBC News," as Ashraf claimed his brother was killed while playing on his family’s roof "when the house was hit by an Israeli shell or rocket."
Narrated Engel:
But in the Gaza Strip now, streets are mostly empty, fuel is running out and there's no electricity. Hospital officials say at least 430 Palestinians have been killed, 30 just today, including 12-year-old Mahmoud Basrowi. His family says the boy was playing on his rooftop with a cousin when the house was hit by an Israeli shell or rocket. Two doctors, one a volunteer from Norway, tried to save Mahmoud. Wrapped in a white funeral shroud, Mahmoud was taken by his brother Ashraf, a Gaza-based television producer contracted by NBC News.
After a clip of Ashraf saying he thought his brother would be safe on the roof, Engel continued: "Ashraf buried his brother just hours after he was killed. Tonight an Israeli spokesman said Israel does not target civilians and that Hamas is to blame because it continues to fire rockets from cities."
Below is a complete transcript of the story from the Sunday, January 4, NBC Nightly News:
LESTER HOLT: Now to our other major story, the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. A day after its tanks rolled across the border, Israeli troops tonight have virtually surrounded Gaza City and are engaged in close-range fighting with Hamas militants. Caught in the middle, civilians on both sides, with Palestinian casualties continuing to mount. NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is in Sderot, Israel, near the Gaza border. Richard, what’s the latest?
RICHARD ENGEL: Good evening, Lester. This conflict is still very much under way. As we speak right now, I can hear Israeli drones in the sky. We've heard several loud explosions in Gaza City behind me. I just heard another one of them right now. Israel says during its first full day of its ground offensive, its forces killed several dozen Hamas militants. The Israeli military today dug in. Several thousand troops and tanks, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery, blocked the main highways in Gaza, divided the territory in two, and surrounded Gaza City. The Israeli air force says it has bombed more than 1,000 Hamas rocket launch sites, safe houses and smuggling tunnels since the offensive began nine days ago.
MARK REGEV, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: We are faced with a Hamas regime that tore up the cease-fire, that initiated rocket barrage after rocket barrage against our civilian population in the South, and we are forced to act to defend our people.
ENGEL: But in the Gaza Strip now, streets are mostly empty, fuel is running out and there's no electricity. Hospital officials say at least 430 Palestinians have been killed, 30 just today, including 12-year-old Mahmoud Basrowi. His family says the boy was playing on his rooftop with a cousin when the house was hit by an Israeli shell or rocket. Two doctors, one a volunteer from Norway, tried to save Mahmoud. Wrapped in a white funeral shroud, Mahmoud was taken by his brother Ashraf, a Gaza-based television producer contracted by NBC News. At his family home, Ashraf told his relatives what happened.
ASHRAF: I didn't believe that. We prevent our children to go to streets because it is not safe to go there. And then just so, we ask them to stay here in the home and play here in this roof because it is safe. We are surrounded with high buildings.
ENGEL: Ashraf buried his brother just hours after he was killed. Tonight an Israeli spokesman said Israel does not target civilians and that Hamas is to blame because it continues to fire rockets from cities. Israelis are taking casualties, too. At least one soldier has been killed, more than 40 injured. And Hamas vows to keep fighting. Its television station yesterday broadcast threats. ‘Israeli soldiers will go home in coffins,' it said. But today Israeli soldiers took over that Hamas TV station and used it to broadcast warnings that Hamas leaders are the ones being targeted. But for the 1.5 million people in Gaza tonight, nowhere feels safe. Israel seems to be preparing for an extended conflict, and today called up thousands more reservists.
