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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Outrage after Israel kills five journalists in ‘double-tap’ attack
on Gaza hospital
By Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Tal Shalev, Oren Liebermann, CNN
Updated:
4:49 PM EDT, Tue August 26, 2025
Source: CNN
Israel is facing fierce condemnation after a pair of strikes on a
hospital killed five journalists as well as medical workers and others
on Monday.
At least 20 people were killed in the attack, according to the
Palestinian Ministry of Health, with many more injured.
carried out back-to-back strikes on the Nasser 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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later conceded that
journalists and first responders had been killed, referring to their
deaths as a “tragic mishap.”
Dr. Mohammad Saqer, a hospital spokesman and head of nursing, said that
five journalists and four health workers had died.
The journalists killed are Mohammad Salama, a cameraman from Al
Jazeera, Hussam Al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, Mariam Abu
Dagga, who has worked with the Associated Press (AP) and other outlets
throughout the war, and freelance journalists Moath Abu Taha and Ahmed
Abu Aziz.
Gaza’s Civil Defense organization said one of its crew members also
died in the strike.
The Israeli attacks hit a balcony on the hospital used by reporters for
an elevated view of Khan Younis.
A first strike on the hospital hit the fourth floor of Nasser Medical
Complex, the health ministry said, followed by a second attack a short
time later that hit ambulance crews and emergency responders.
Video from the scene shows Saqer 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.
“As we were evacuating the injured, while the civil defence and
emergency workers were present, the staircase was targeted for the
second time,” Reuters journalist Hatem Sadeq Omar, who was wounded
and speaking from a hospital gurney, told CNN. “There were
journalists, patients, nurses, civil defense were on the stairs. We
were directly targeted.”
Ahmed Siyam, a civil defense worker who was also wounded said: “We
went up and found the martyrs in pieces. We carried two martyrs in body
bags. And as we were putting together the third whose body was torn to
burnt pieces, we were shocked with another explosion.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in an updated statement Monday
evening that it “carried out a strike in the area of” the hospital.
IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the military was “aware of
reports that harm was caused to civilians, including journalists.”
Defin said the military was operating in an “extremely complex
reality.”
“The IDF does not intentionally target civilians,” Defrin insisted.
“Any incident that raises concern in this regard is address by the
relevant mechanisms in the IDF.” He blamed Hamas for using civilian
infrastructure, including hospitals, as bases.
The military’s chief has instructed an initial inquiry to be opened
as soon as possible, and Defrin said the military was obligated to
investigate “thoroughly and professionally.”
An Israeli security official with knowledge of the details of that
initial inquiry said IDF forces identified a camera on the roof of the
hospital that they claimed was being used by Hamas to monitor the
Israeli military.
The forces received authorization to strike the camera with a drone,
the source said. But instead, Israeli forces fired two tank shells: the
first at the camera and the second at rescue forces.
The details of the inquiry are a remarkable admission from an Israeli
official that it intentionally targeted the first responders that
arrived at the scene after the initial strike.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an admission that Israel had
killed journalists and emergency responders, said that Israel “deeply
regrets” what he called a “tragic mishap” at Nasser hospital.
“Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all
civilians. The military authorities are conducting a thorough
investigation.”
A ‘watershed moment’
Journalist organizations and international bodies reacted to the deaths
with shock and anger.
In a joint letter to senior Israeli officials, top AP and Reuters
executives demanded “urgent and transparent accountability.”
“We are outraged that independent journalists were among the victims
of this strike on the hospital, a location that is protected under
international law. These journalists were present in their professional
capacity, doing critical work bearing witness,” the letter read.
The two news agencies also questioned whether the IDF was capable of
truly investigating itself.
“Unfortunately, we have found the IDF’s willingness and ability to
investigate itself in past incidents to rarely result in clarity and
action, raising serious questions including whether Israel is
deliberately targeting live feeds in order to suppress information,”
the joint statement read.
The Foreign Press Association in Israel and the Palestinian Territories
described the strikes as “among the deadliest Israeli attacks on
journalists working for international media since the Gaza war
began.”
“This has gone on far too long. Too many journalists in Gaza have
been killed by Israel without justification. Israel continues to block
international journalists from independent access to Gaza,” the
organization added, saying it should be regarded as a “watershed
moment.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the main UN agency for
Palestinian refugees, said on social media that the strikes amounted to
“silencing the last remaining voices reporting about children dying
silently amid famine.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the killings of the
journalists and medical workers, noting the “extreme risks” they
face carrying out their work. His spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said
in a that Guterres called for civilians including medical workers and
journalists to be “protected at all times” and able to carry out
their work “without interference, intimidation, or harm.” The UN
chief also called for an impartial investigation into the killings.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate described the attack as a
“heinous massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces…
which directly targeted media and journalistic crews,” while Doctors
Without Borders (MSF) also condemned the strikes on the “only
partially functioning public hospital in the south of Gaza.” The
group’s emergency coordinator in Gaza Jerome Grimaud said some MSF
staffers were “forced to shelter in the laboratory as Israel
repeatedly struck the building amidst rescue efforts.”
Countries including , the , , , , , and also condemned the strikes.
In a separate attack on Monday, another journalist, Hassan Douhan, was
killed by Israeli forces in Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian
Journalists Syndicate, who said he “was shot by the occupation forces
in his tent.” Douhan worked as the director of the investigative
reporting department at Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, a newspaper in Gaza.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), before Monday
Israel had killed 192 journalists since the start of the .
Jodie Ginsberg, the CPJ president, accused Israel of deliberately
targeting a Reuters camera position. “First responders moved in,
including journalists, and they were killed in the second attack,”
she said in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson.
“So in both instances, it looks like Israel has committed unlawful
killings, war crimes, both in the deliberate killing of the Reuters
cameraman and in this so-called double tap attack,” Ginsberg added.
. 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 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.
“She was waiting for the war to end to see her son,” her cousin
Rahwan Abu Farhana told CNN. “Mariam is very kind and affectionate.
She brings us together, her sisters and the whole family, and she is
very caring.”
Al Jazeera condemned the killings as a “horrific crime” committed
by Israeli forces who have “directly targeted and assassinated
journalists.”
The network said in a statement: “The ongoing campaign by the Israeli
occupation against journalists has violated all international norms and
laws, amounting to war crimes under the Rome Statute and the Geneva
Conventions, both of which strictly prohibit the deliberate targeting
of civilians and journalists in conflict zones.”
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.”
Two weeks ago, Israel killed several Al Jazeera journalists in a strike
in Gaza City, including one of the network’s . It came after the IDF
accused Al-Sharif of being the leader of a Hamas rocket cell, an
accusation he vehemently denied.
As the war rages on in Gaza, US President Donald Trump on Monday that
it would end “within the next two to three weeks,” without
providing specifics. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a
statement they hoped the US president’s statement was true and a
“deadline to end (their) suffering.”
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