DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel struck one of the main hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Monday and then hit the facility again as journalists and rescue workers rushed to the scene, killing at least 20 people and wounding scores more, local health workers said.
It was among the deadliest of several Israeli strikes that have hit both hospitals and journalists over the course of the 22-month war sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and the attack came as Israel plans to widen its offensive to heavily populated areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the strike was a “tragic mishap” and that the military was investigating.
The first strike hit a top floor of a building at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Minutes later, as journalists and rescuers in orange vests rushed up an external staircase, a second projectile hit, said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of Nasser’s pediatrics department.
Among those killed was 33-year-old Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who had worked for The Associated Press. Dagga regularly reported for multiple outlets from the hospital, including a recent story for the AP on doctors struggling to save children from starvation.
The strike killed four other journalists who had worked for Al Jazeera, Reuters and Middle East Eye, a U.K.-based media outlet, most on a contractor or freelance basis.
Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army does not target civilians and had launched an internal investigation into the strikes. He accused Hamas of hiding among civilians but did not say whether Israel believed any militants were present during the strikes on the hospital.
Netanyahu’s statement said Israel "deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza.”
Israeli media reported that Israeli troops fired two artillery shells at the hospital, targeting what they suspected was a Hamas surveillance camera on the roof.
The U.N. secretary-general, along with Britain, France and others, condemned the attack. When asked about the strike, U.S. President Donald Trump initially said he was not aware of it before offering: “I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it.”
A doctor describes ‘chaos, disbelief and fear’
Israel has attacked hospitals multiple times throughout the war, asserting that Hamas embeds itself in and around the facilities, though Israeli officials rarely provide evidence. Hamas security personnel have been seen inside such facilities over the course of the war, and parts of those sites have been off limits to reporters and the public.
The hospitals that remain open have been overwhelmed by the dead, wounded and now by increasing numbers of malnourished as parts of Gaza are now in famine.
The first Israeli strike at around 10:10 a.m. hit the hospital’s fourth floor, which has surgical operating rooms and doctor’s residences, killing at least two people, said Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the records department at the Gaza Health Ministry.
The second strike on the stairwell killed 18 others, including rescuers and the journalists, al-Waheidi told the AP. He said around 80 people were wounded, including many who were in the hospital’s courtyard.
Journalists often used the external staircase as a location for live TV spots and to pick up an internet signal.
A British doctor working on the floor that was hit said the second strike came before people could start evacuating from the first.
“Just absolute scenes of chaos, disbelief and fear,” the doctor said. They described wounded people leaving trails of blood as they entered the ward. The hospital was already overwhelmed, with patients with IV drips lying on the floor in the corridors in stifling heat.
The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations from their organization to avoid reprisals from Israeli authorities.
“It leaves me in another state of shock that hospitals can be a target,” the doctor said. “You go to work as a health care professional, and you should be protected in the place you work. But you are not."
Nasser Hospital has withstood raids and bombardment during the war, with officials repeatedly noting critical shortages of supplies and staff.
A June strike on the hospital killed three people, according to the Health Ministry. The military said at the time that it targeted a Hamas command and control center. A March strike on its surgical unit days after Israel ended a ceasefire killed a Hamas official and a 16-year-old boy.
More Palestinians killed while seeking aid
Al-Awda Hospital said Israeli gunfire killed six aid-seekers trying to reach a distribution point in central Gaza and wounded another 15.
The shootings were the latest in the Netzarim Corridor, a military zone where U.N. convoys have been overrun by looters and desperate crowds, and where people have been shot and killed while heading to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor.
The GHF denied that any shootings had occurred near its site. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said after previous shootings that it only fires warning shots.
Al-Awda said two Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed six Palestinians, including a child. Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said three Palestinians, including a child were killed in a strike there.
One of the deadliest wars for journalists
The war in Gaza has been one of the bloodiest for media workers, with 189 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. More than 1,500 health workers have been killed, according to the U.N.
Israel’s "killing of journalists in Gaza continues while the world watches and fails to act firmly on the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced in recent history," said Sara Qudah, regional director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "These murders must end now. The perpetrators must no longer be allowed to act with impunity.”
The health ministry said Sunday that at least 62,686 Palestinians have been killed in the war. It does not distinguish between fighters and civilians but says around half have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
The war began when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals, but 50 remain in Gaza, with around 20 believed to be alive.
Hostages’ families fear a new offensive will further endanger their loved ones, and Israel has seen mass protests calling for a ceasefire deal that would bring them home.
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This story has been corrected to note that Israel has provided some evidence of militants operating in and around some of the hospitals it has raided.
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Magdy reported from Cairo, and Metz reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press Writer Melanie Lidman contributed from Jerusalem.
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