Four journalists among 15 killed in Israeli strike on hospital, Gaza officials say

At least 20 people, including five journalists working for the international media, are reported to have been killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.

A Reuters cameraman, an Associated Press (AP) journalist, and an Al Jazeera photographer were among them. It is not clear who the other two worked for.

Several people were killed in an initial strike, and others in a second which happened as rescuers attended the scene, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says an investigation is being carried out into its attack on the hospital. It added that it “does not target journalists as such”, but did not give details about the strike.

The latest deaths brings the number of journalists killed in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023 to nearly 200.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a leading body which promotes press freedom, the war in Gaza has been the deadliest conflict for journalists ever documented. It says more press members have been killed there in the past two years than were killed worldwide in the prior three years.

International journalists have been banned by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip independently since the start of the war.

Some journalists have been taken into Gaza by the IDF under controlled access, but international media outlets rely on local reporters for much of their coverage in Gaza.

The health ministry said people were killed when a missile hit the fourth floor, followed by a second missile on the same spot when rescuers arrived, AP reported.

In video from the scene, a doctor standing at an entrance to the hospital – the main one in southern Gaza – holds up bloodied clothes to show journalists following the first strike. Suddenly there is a blast, sending people running for cover as glass shatters. A man injured by the blast is seen trying to drag himself to safety.

In other footage, white and grey smoke can be seen billowing from an upper level of the hospital where damage is apparent. Outside, people are running and shouting amid chaos, as ambulance horns can be heard.

Reuters news agency said its cameraman, Husam al-Masri, was among those killed and Hatem Khaled injured.

The agency said it was devastated and “urgently seeking more information”.

AP said Mariam Dagga, a freelance journalist working for it, was also killed. The news agency said it was “shocked and saddened” by the 33-year-old’s death.

The others include Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Salama, and photographer Moaz Abu Taha. US TV network NBC said Taha did not work for it, as had been initially reported. It is not clear who the fifth, Ahmad Abu Aziz, worked for.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence said one of its members was among those killed, AFP news agency reported.

Monday’s attack comes two weeks after six journalists, including four from Al Jazeera, were killed in an Israeli targeted attack near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The UN’s human rights office condemned that attack, calling it a grave breach of international law.

The IDF said it had targeted Anas al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera reporter, alleging he had “served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas”.

The CPJ said Israel had failed to provide evidence to back up its allegations.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.

Israel responded with a massive military offensive, which has killed more than 62,686 Palestinians, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.