More than a dozen Palestinians were killed in a pair of Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza, according to the Nasser Medical Complex, including journalists from multiple outlets.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said at least 20 people were killed in the attack on Monday, with many more injured.
Israel carried out back-to-back strikes on the hospital in Khan Younis separated by only a matter of minutes, the ministry said. The “double-tap” hits killed journalists, health workers, and emergency response crews who had rushed to the scene after the initial attack, the Nasser Hospital said.
The journalists killed were named as Mohammad Salama, a cameraman from Al Jazeera, Hussam Al-Masri who was a contractor for Reuters, and Mariam Abu Dagga, who has worked with the Associated Press and other outlets throughout the war. Moath Abu Taha, a freelance journalist, was also killed in the strike, the hospital added.
The Israeli attacks hit a balcony on the hospital used by journalists for an elevated view of Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Civil Defense organization said one of their crew members also died in the attack.
A first strike on the hospital hit the fourth floor of Nasser Medical Complex, the Palestinian health ministry said, followed by a second attack a short time later that hit ambulance crews and emergency responders.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it “carried out a strike in the area of” the hospital. The IDF said it “does not target journalists as such,” and that the military chief has instructed an initial inquiry to be opened as soon as possible.
The IDF statement does not acknowledge hitting the hospital directly, fails to mention the two consecutive strikes on the facility and makes no mention of what the military was targeting.
Video from the scene shows Dr. Mohammad Saqer, a hospital spokesman and head of nursing, holding up a blood-soaked cloth after the first strike when another explosion rocks the building, filling the air with smoke and sending people running for cover.
A live camera from Al Ghad TV shows emergency workers on a damaged staircase at the hospital when the second attack hits the building.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the attack, calling it a “heinous massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces… which directly targeted media and journalistic crews.”
CNN profiled Abu Dagga last year as one of the journalists chronicling the conflict as a growing number of her colleagues were killed in Israeli attacks. Then 31 years old, she said: “We are covering the war on Gaza because this is our journalistic duty. It is entrusted upon us.”
At the time, Abu Dagga worked for the Independent Arabic. She also freelanced for the Associated Press (AP) since the war began. “We challenged the Israeli occupation. We challenged the difficult circumstances and the reality of this war, a genocidal war,” Abu Dagga told CNN in 2024.
AP said it was “shocked and saddened” to learn of Abu Dagga’s death along with several other journalists. Her 12-year-old son was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war, the news agency said.
“(Abu) Dagga reported on Nasser Hospital doctors struggling to save children with no prior health issues who were wasting away from starvation,” AP said in a statement.
In a statement, Hamas said: “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 since the start of the Gaza war, prior to Monday’s attack. The organization added that: “Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented.”
Two weeks ago, Israel killed several Al Jazeera journalists in a strike in Gaza City, including one of the network’s most prominent correspondents, Anas Al-Sharif. It came after the IDF accused Al-Sharif of being the leader of a Hamas rocket cell, an accusation he vehemently denied.
This story has been updated with additional developments.