More than a dozen Palestinians had been killed in a pair of Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza, in keeping with the Nasser Medical Complex, including journalists from a number of retailers.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health mentioned a minimum of 20 people had been killed in the assault on Monday, with many extra injured.
Israel carried out back-to-back strikes on the hospital in Khan Younis separated by solely a matter of minutes, the ministry mentioned. The “double-tap” hits killed journalists, well being staff, and emergency response crews who had rushed to the scene after the preliminary assault, the Nasser Hospital mentioned.
The journalists killed had been named as Mohammad Salama, a cameraman from Al Jazeera, Hussam Al-Masri who was a contractor for Reuters, and Mariam Abu Dagga, who has labored with the Associated Press and different retailers all through the battle. Moath Abu Taha, a freelance journalist, was additionally killed in the strike, the hospital added.
The Israeli assaults hit a balcony on the hospital utilized by journalists for an elevated view of Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Civil Defense group mentioned considered one of their crew members additionally died in the assault.
A primary strike on the hospital hit the fourth ground of Nasser Medical Complex, the Palestinian well being ministry mentioned, adopted by a second assault a brief time later that hit ambulance crews and emergency responders.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) mentioned in a assertion that it “carried out a strike in the area of” the hospital. The IDF mentioned it “does not target journalists as such,” and that the army chief has instructed an preliminary inquiry to be opened as quickly as doable.
The IDF assertion doesn’t acknowledge hitting the hospital immediately, fails to say the 2 consecutive strikes on the power and makes no point out of what the army was focusing on.
Video from the scene exhibits Dr. Mohammad Saqer, a hospital spokesman and head of nursing, holding up a blood-soaked fabric after the primary strike when one other explosion rocks the constructing, filling the air with smoke and sending people operating for canopy.
A stay digital camera from Al Ghad TV exhibits emergency staff on a broken staircase on the hospital when the second assault hits the constructing.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the assault, calling it a “heinous massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces… which directly targeted media and journalistic crews.”
NCS profiled Abu Dagga last year as one of many journalists chronicling the battle as a rising variety of her colleagues had been killed in Israeli assaults. Then 31 years outdated, she mentioned: “We are covering the war on Gaza because this is our journalistic duty. It is entrusted upon us.”
At the time, Abu Dagga labored for the Independent Arabic. She additionally freelanced for the Associated Press (AP) for the reason that battle started. “We challenged the Israeli occupation. We challenged the difficult circumstances and the reality of this war, a genocidal war,” Abu Dagga instructed NCS in 2024.
AP mentioned it was “shocked and saddened” to study of Abu Dagga’s loss of life together with a number of different journalists. Her 12-year-old son was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the battle, the information company mentioned.
“(Abu) Dagga reported on Nasser Hospital doctors struggling to save children with no prior health issues who were wasting away from starvation,” AP mentioned in a assertion.
In a assertion, Hamas mentioned: “The cowardly enemy aims to deter journalists from conveying the truth and covering war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and the catastrophic living conditions of our Palestinian people in Gaza.”
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Israel has killed 192 journalists for the reason that begin of the Gaza battle, previous to Monday’s assault. The group added that: “Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented.”
Two weeks in the past, Israel killed a number of Al Jazeera journalists in a strike in Gaza City, including one of many community’s most prominent correspondents, Anas Al-Sharif. It got here after the IDF accused Al-Sharif of being the chief of a Hamas rocket cell, an accusation he vehemently denied.