Israel hit southern Gaza’s main hospital with a double missile strike Monday, killing at least 19 people including four journalists, medical officials said.
The first strike hit a top floor of one of the buildings at Nasser Hospital. Minutes later, as journalists and rescue workers in orange vests rushed up an external staircase to the scene, a second missile hit in the same spot, 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 Nasser Hospital, including a recent story for The Associated Press on doctors struggling to save children from starvation.
Al Jazeera and Reuters also confirmed their journalists and freelancers were among those killed.
Israel’s military in a statement confirmed it had struck targets in the area of the hospital. It said it would conduct an investigation into the incident and that “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such.”
It was the latest in multiple Israeli attacks on hospitals throughout the war. Hospitals have been overwhelmed by war wounded and now by increasing numbers of malnourished as parts of Gaza slide into famine. Palestinians are also facing an escalated Israeli offensive into Gaza City, which threatens a greater wave of displacement.
'You should be protected in the place you work'
The first strike at around 10:10 a.m. hit the hospital’s fourth floor, where surgical operating rooms and doctor’s residences are located, killing at least two people, said Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry’s records department.
The strike on the stairwell killed 17 others, including medical teams, rescuers, journalists and others rushing upstairs, al-Waheidi told the AP.
Journalists often used the staircase, which ran up the outside of the building, as a location for live TV spots and to pick up signal for the internet.
A British doctor who was working on the floor that was hit said the second strike hit before people could start evacuating from the first.
“Just absolute scenes of chaos, disbelief, and fear,” the doctor said. People wounded from the strikes — either directly caught in the blast or hit by debris — entered the ward, leaving trails of blood. Stretchers rushed past visitors searching for loved ones. The chaos hit as the hospital was already overwhelmed, with patients with IV drips lying on the floors in the corridors in stifling heat, they said.
“It leaves me in another state of shock that hospitals can be a target,” the doctor said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations from their organization to avoid reprisals from Israeli authorities. “You go to work as a healthcare professional and you should be protected in the place you work. But you are not. I really fear for my colleagues and patients who are left behind at Nasser today.”
Attacks on routes to aid sites
Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, the largest in southern Gaza, has withstood raids and bombardment during 22 months of war, with officials citing critical shortages of supplies and staff.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately responded to questions about the strike. In previous attacks on hospitals,
The strike came four days after Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military's Arabic spokesperson, urged health officials to evacuate patients from northern Gaza to facilities in the south ahead of Israel's offensive in Gaza City.
In addition to those killed at Nasser Hospital, hospital officials in northern Gaza also reported deaths from strikes and gunfire along the route to aid sites.
Three Palestinians, including a child, were killed in a strike on a neighborhood in Gaza City, where Israel is preparing for a broader ground invasion in the coming days, Shifa Hospital said. Al-Awda Hospital reported six aid-seekers trying to reach a distribution point in central Gaza were killed by Israeli gunfire in an incident that also wounded 15. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a question about the aid seekers.
Israel has repeatedly struck or raided hospitals
The Israel-Hamas war has been one of the bloodiest conflicts for media workers, with a total of 192 journalists killed in Gaza in the 22-month conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. More than 1,500 health workers have also been killed, according to the U.N.
Israel has struck or raided hospitals repeatedly throughout the war. Israel says its attacks have targeted militants operating inside the medical facilities, without providing evidence.
A June strike on Nasser Hospital killed three people and wounded 10, according to the health ministry. At the time, Israel's military said it had targeted Hamas militants operating from a command and control center inside the hospital. A March strike on the hospital's surgical unit days after a ceasefire broke down killed two people.
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 U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
