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Ayman Mohyeldin, leading correspondent for American TV network NBC was taken off his assignment in Gaza on Thursday after he reported an Israeli airstrike on a beach in Gaza which killed four children. Before the children died, Mohyeldin had tweeted that he was “kicking a ball” with them. He provided most of the detail about the children’s death. The kids ranged from ages 9 to 11 and were all from the same family.
Mohyeldin conducted exclusive interviews with the parents of the victims and the parents of a wounded child while they prepared for their child’s operation. He was later interviewed on MSNBC by Chris Hayes to detail the events.
Despite his comprehensive coverage, Mohyeldin was not in the primetime newscast detailing the incident, which on Wednesday led to complaints from his colleagues. His recorded reports were used by NBC, but Mohyeldin was not called it to give his perspective. Online publication The Intercept later reported that NBC executive David Verdi ordered Mohyeldin to immediately leave Gaza.
NBC has officially not commented on why Mohyeldin is not reporting from Gaza anymore. NBC executives had reportedly told The Intercept that their decision was made because of “security concerns”, especially considering Israel’s ground offensive launched on Thursday night.
However, the network sent its chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel to Gaza after removing Mohyeldin. To add to the controversy, Mohyeldin then removed two posts from his Facebook and Twitter accounts in which he said that a US State Department spokesman had blamed Hamas for the deaths of the children.
“The U.S. State Department spokesperson just said that Hamas is ultimately responsible for Israel shelling and killing 4 boys who were cousins aged 9-11 because Hamas didn’t accept the cease-fire. Discuss among yourselves”, he posted on Facebook.
Soon after,Mohyeldin disappeared from social media, causing “#LetAymanReport” to go viral on Twitter.
