Israel claims strike on hospital that killed journalists was targeting a camera used by Hamas

Israel’s military issued a statement Tuesday saying its preliminary investigation into a strike the previous day that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, at the Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip had targeted a camera that it said was being used by Hamas for surveillance.

The Israel Defense Forces said troops in Khan Younis identified a camera “being used to observe the activity of IDF troops, in order to direct terrorist activities against them.”

The IDF did not provide evidence to back the assertion, but said it was “further supported” by previously documented Hamas usage of hospitals “by the terrorist organizations throughout the war, and by intelligence confirming Hamas’ use of the Nasser Hospital to carry out terrorist activities since the start of the war.”

The Israeli military’s explanation contrasted with a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a few hours after the incident, expressing regret for what he called a “tragic mishap,” with no suggestion of a specific Hamas target at the hospital.  

“Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians,” Netanyahu’s office said in the statement released on social media. “The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation. Our war is with Hamas terrorists. Our just goals are defeating Hamas and bringing our hostages home.”

In what witnesses described as a double-tap strike by Israeli drones — with one missile striking the hospital followed by another as people gathered to assess the damage and attend to the wounded — five Palestinian journalists were killed on Monday.

Their identities were confirmed as Hossam al-Masri, who worked for the Reuters news agency, Mohammed Salama, who worked for Al Jazeera, and freelance journalists Maryam Abu Daqqa, Moaz Abu Taha and Ahmad Abu Aziz.

The Associated Press’ news director for the Middle East, Jon Gambrell, said in a social media post that Abu Daqqa had “freelanced for the AP since the Gaza war began.”

Middle East Eye, a U.K.-based media outlet focusing on the region, said Abu Aziz had been working for the organization.

The strike was among the deadliest of several that have hit hospitals and journalists over the course of the 22-month war in Gaza, and it came as Israel plans to widen its offensive to heavily populated areas in the densely populated Palestinian territory.

The first strike hit a top floor of a building at Nasser Hospital. Minutes later, as journalists and rescuers in orange vests rushed up an external staircase to reach the scene of the first blast, a second missile hit, said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of Nasser’s pediatrics department.

In a statement issued Monday, the Foreign Press Association, which represents journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it was “outraged and in shock” over the killings of media workers.

“This is among the deadliest Israeli attacks on journalists working for international media since the Gaza war began,” the organization said. “These strikes hit the exterior staircase of the hospital where journalists frequently stationed themselves with their cameras. The strikes came with no warning.”

The IDF, in its Tuesday statement, said Israeli forces, having identified the alleged surveillance camera, “operated to remove the threat by striking and dismantling the camera and the inquiry showed that the troops operated to remove the threat.”

The IDF said six of those killed in the attack “were terrorists, one of whom took part in the infiltration into Israeli territory on October 7th. At the same time, the Chief of the General Staff regrets any harm caused to civilians.”

The IDF did not identify the alleged terrorists killed in the strike, or explain the evidence used to make the determination that they were terrorists. Nor did the IDF suggest anything had been deliberately targeted in the strike other than the purported camera.

The military said the chief of staff had ordered further investigation into both “the authorization process prior to the strike, including the ammunition approved for the strike and the timing of the authorization,” and the “decision making process in the field.”

President Trump, asked about the deadly strike on Monday, said he had been unaware until the question was put to him.

“When did this happen?” Mr. Trump asked a reporter in the White House. “I didn’t know that. Well, I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it. At the same time, we have to end that whole nightmare.”

Israel has come under mounting pressure over the number of journalists being killed in its military operations in Gaza — including in targeted strikes against individuals whom Israeli officials claim were Hamas operatives.

At least 197 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and in Lebanon since Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-orchestrated terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

That war has killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. The Hamas-led attack almost two years ago killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw 251 others taken as hostages into Gaza.