More than 16 people, including five journalists, were killed Monday morning in a twin Israeli airstrike on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, according to a journalist on the scene speaking to Al Manassa.
The first strike hit around 10 am, targeting the stairway leading to the emergency and reception departments. As civil defense teams and medics rushed to evacuate the casualties, a second strike followed moments later, hitting the same location as journalists documented the aftermath.
“The occupation targeted civil defense teams directly while they were retrieving the wounded and the dead,” said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for the civil defense in Gaza. He confirmed to Al Manassa that in the second strike, one first responder was killed and seven others were injured.
Among those killed were photojournalist Mariam Dagga, who worked with Independent Arabia and the Associated Press; photojournalist Muath Abu Taha for NBC News; videographer Hussam Al-Masri, a Reuters contractor; Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammad Salama; and reporter Ahmed Abu Aziz, who contributed to several outlets.
Three other journalists were wounded in the attack, with their injuries described as moderate.
A journalist on the scene told Al Manassa that some victims of the Nasser hospital attack remain unidentified due to the severity of their injuries. Medical teams warned that the death toll could rise, as many of the wounded are in critical condition.
Worldwide condemnation
The mounting deaths drew immediate responses from news organizations worldwide.
In a statement, a Reuters spokesperson said the company was “devastated to learn of the death of Reuters contractor Hussam Al-Masri and injuries to another of our contractors, Hatem Khaled.”
The agency added that it was urgently seeking more information and had asked authorities for help in getting medical assistance for Khaled.
In a separate statement, AP said it was “shocked and saddened to learn of Dagga’s death, along with several other journalists.”
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera condemned the attack as “a clear intent to bury the truth,” noting that this incident occurred just two weeks after renowned Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif was killed by an Israeli strike along with four of his media colleagues in front of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The network called for “exerting international pressure and immediate action to prevent the silencing of Gaza’s voice through the systematic targeting and killing of its journalists in full view of the world.”
The Government Media Office in Gaza also condemned the attack, calling it “a systematic crime against journalists who have been documenting this war for more than 690 days.”
The office noted that 245 journalists have been killed since the war on Gaza began, holding Israel and the US administration fully responsible.
It called on international media organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists and the Arab Journalists Union, to condemn the killings and to push for accountability.
Hamas, in a statement on Telegram, condemned the attack as a “compound war crime,” citing the targeting of journalists, rescue workers and medical staff as further evidence of Israel's disregard for international humanitarian law.
It called on the UN and international community to intervene immediately to end what it described as “systematic genocide,” urging Arab and Islamic countries to pressure the US and its allies to stop the war.
On its end, the Israeli occupation army expressed “regret” over what it called the harm to “noncombatants.”
Though it admitted to targeting journalist Anas Al-Sharif earlier this month, the occupation army maintained that it does not deliberately strike journalists. It said it is “doing its best to minimize harm.”
Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has ordered an internal investigation into the Nasser hospital strike.
Press under siege
The journalists killed in Monday's strike were among a growing cohort of freelancers and contractors who have become the primary eyes and ears of the global press in Gaza.
As major news outlets evacuated their permanent staff from Gaza at the onset of the war in October 2023, they increasingly turned to local Palestinian journalists to bear the burden of documenting the conflict from inside the besieged enclave—often without protection, and at immense personal risk.
That reliance has come under renewed scrutiny as more than 200 journalists, war correspondents and photojournalists last month signed a petition demanding immediate, unsupervised access for international media to report independently from Gaza.
The “Freedom to Report” initiative, launched by award-winning photojournalist André Liohn, included signatories such as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Sky News’ Alex Crawford, British war photographer Don McCullin, and broadcaster Mehdi Hasan.
The petition stressed the unprecedented dangers facing journalists in Gaza, noting that nearly 200 media workers, the vast majority of them Palestinian, have been killed since the war began, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists on record.
Major media outlets such as The Guardian, Washington Post and Financial Times have backed the call, joining a statement by the International News Safety Institute urging Israel to allow international media entry into Gaza and to facilitate the evacuation of journalists and their families.
In June, Al Manassa joined more than 160 media organizations and press freedom groups in signing an open letter coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The letter demanded unrestricted media access to Gaza and called for the protection of journalists. It was endorsed by Reuters, AP, CNN, and Al Jazeera.
Famine sweeping through the Strip
Foreign press are not only barred from entering Gaza; journalists already inside the Strip are themselves subject to the same blockade that has cut off food, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian aid since May 7.
Denied access to safety, protection, and even the means for survival, local reporters continue their work under conditions of starvation and siege—conditions now officially recognized by the UN as famine.
In July, the AFP Journalists' Association issued a rare statement warning that its freelance correspondents in Gaza are facing starvation. “We fear that our team may die not from bombs, but from hunger,” the statement said—a grim first in the agency’s 81-year history.
The siege has not only pushed the population to the brink of famine—it has also blocked access to critical medical supplies. Palestinian and Israeli health officials, along with WHO representatives, told The Independent that life-saving treatment for an outbreak of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is entirely unavailable anywhere in Gaza.
The outbreak has been linked by health officials to the destruction of water treatment infrastructure by Israeli forces, a claim the Israeli military has denied.
On March 18, Israel rejected the second phase of a ceasefire agreement initially approved in January, which was intended to extend until the end of hostilities in Gaza.
Since then, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the occupation army to accelerate operations in Gaza City, effectively stalling negotiations already approved by Hamas and mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
Despite a framework offering a 60-day halt, the release of captives, and the partial withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces, Israel has yet to respond favorably.
Netanyahu’s push for military escalation has drawn criticism from mediators and humanitarian organizations alike, who warn that it is undermining all efforts toward a ceasefire and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground.
