The Israeli military on Monday massacred 20 Palestinians, including five journalists, in an attack on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital that involved a double-tap strike on rescue workers in the southern city of Khan Younis.
According to The Associated Press, the initial strike at 10:10 am Gaza time hit the fourth floor of the hospital, which has surgical operating rooms and doctors’ residences, killing at least two people. Once rescue workers and journalists arrived at the scene, a second strike hit, killing 18 more people, a double-tap attack that was caught on video.
The Israeli outlet 972 Magazine published an investigation last month that said that the IDF has adopted using double-tap strikes as a “standard procedure” in Gaza. Yuval Abraham, a reporter for 972 who wrote the report, said on Monday that the video of the double-tap strike on Nasser Hospital is “footage of murder.”
According to Reuters, the initial strike killed one of its contractors, cameraman Hussam al-Masri, who was killed near a live broadcasting position operated by Reuters on the upper floor of the hospital. Antiwar.com has a photo account with Reuters and has used several photos taken by al-Masri in previous news stories.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli military said that the initial strike targeted a camera, which they claimed was a “Hamas camera” that was being used to observe IDF forces. They say that an Israeli tank shell struck the area, then another one was fired to make sure the camera was destroyed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later claimed that the double-tap strike was a “tragic mishap.”
The other four journalists killed by the Israeli attack on the hospital were Mariam Abu Dagga, who freelanced for The Associated Press and other outlets, Mohammed Salama, who worked for Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera, Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist who worked with several news outlets, and Ahmed Abu Aziz, another freelancer who also contributed to Middle East Eye.
Dagga recently co-authored a report for The Associated Press that highlighted the plight of malnourished children in Gaza who are being starved by the Israeli blockade. Middle East Eye said that its head of video production recently spoke with Salama about Israel’s starvation policy and that he expressed fear of being targeted by the IDF in the wake of the assassination of Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif.
The Israeli military has killed a huge number of journalists throughout its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the attack on the Nasser Hospital brought the total number of journalists killed by Israeli attacks to more than 244.
