Israel is facing global condemnation for a series of strikes on southern Gaza’s largest hospital this week that killed at least 22 people, including health workers, emergency responders, and five journalists.
The attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis began around 10:08 a.m. Monday when a projectile, believed to be a tank shell, struck a fourth-floor balcony. Reuters cameraman Hussam Al-Masri was killed in the initial blast. Approximately nine minutes later, as a group of rescue workers and other journalists gathered to attend to the victims, the Israeli military fired again on the same location.
New video obtained and analyzed reveals that this second wave was not a single strike but two near-simultaneous projectiles, which appear to have caused most of the fatalities. Intentionally targeting rescue workers, journalists, and civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law and can be considered a war crime.
Initially, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conceded the incident was a “tragic mishap.” However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later defended the assault, claiming it targeted a “camera that was positioned by Hamas” and that six “terrorists” had been killed. The IDF stated it was investigating “several gaps” in its understanding of the events and insisted it “does not intentionally target civilians.” When asked about the third shell, the IDF had no further comment.
Hamas and Gaza health officials have disputed the IDF’s account, stating that two of the individuals Israel named as terrorists were killed at other locations.
Wounded Reuters contractor Hatem Omar told reporters from his hospital bed, “Journalists, patients, nurses, civil defense were on the stairs. We were directly targeted.”
A frame-by-frame analysis of the new footage confirms two munitions struck the staircase where first responders had gathered. According to weapons specialist N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the projectiles were likely multi-purpose tank shells, such as the Israeli M339 model. “The impact of two projectiles at nearly the exact same moment suggests two tanks may have fired on the target simultaneously,” Jenzen-Jones said, indicating a “more carefully coordinated attack, rather than a single vehicle firing at a ‘target of opportunity’.”
This assessment is consistent with an analysis by Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosives expert, who concluded the projectiles came from the northeast. Satellite imagery shows IDF combat vehicles, including tanks, at a base a mile and a half northeast of the hospital.
An Israeli security official with knowledge of the initial inquiry told CNN that while forces received authorization to strike the camera with a drone, they fired two tank shells instead. The source said the first shell targeted the camera, and the second was aimed at the rescue forces who had gathered at the scene—the only acknowledgment from an Israeli official that first responders were intentionally targeted.
The fourth-floor balcony was a well-known and frequently used position for journalists from Reuters, the Associated Press, and other global media outlets to broadcast and upload material. The five journalists killed were Reuters contractor Hussam Al-Masri; freelance visual journalists Mariam Abu Dagga and Moath Abu Taha, who worked with AP and Reuters; freelance journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz; and Mohammad Salama, a cameraman for Al Jazeera.
The strikes have been condemned by organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Doctors Without Borders, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as by countries such as Canada, the UK, Germany, and Qatar.
Nasser Hospital is the only hospital still operating in southern Gaza. Salah Mansour, a surgical department supervisor, told the nonprofit Medical Aid for Palestinians, “Medical staff and hospitals are supposed to be granted the highest level of protection under international law, yet here we are, pleading for our safety.”
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