Reporting calls into question why, how Israel attacked a Gaza hospital

By SAM MEDNICK and SAMY MAGDY, Related Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Related Press reporting into an Israeli assault on a Gaza Strip hospital that killed 22 individuals, together with 5 journalists, raises critical questions on Israel’s rationale for the strikes and the best way they had been carried out. Amongst these killed was Mariam Dagga, who labored for AP and different information organizations.

Israeli forces struck a place effectively generally known as a journalists’ gathering level, as a result of — a navy official stated — they believed a digital camera on the roof was being utilized by Hamas to watch troops. The official cited “suspicious habits” and unspecified intelligence, however the one element given was that there was a towel on the digital camera and the particular person with it — which the military interpreted as an effort to keep away from identification. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the USA, Canada and the European Union.

AP has gathered new proof indicating the digital camera in query really belonged to a Reuters video journalist who routinely coated his tools with a white fabric to guard it from the scorching solar and dirt. The journalist, Hussam al-Masri, was killed within the preliminary strike.

The proof calls into query why Israeli forces went by means of with the strike. Witnesses say Israel steadily noticed the place by drone, together with about 40 minutes earlier than the assault, giving a chance to accurately establish al-Masri.

AP’s findings additionally reveal different troubling choices from the Aug. 25 assault:

— Quickly after the primary strike, Israeli forces hit the identical place once more, after medical and emergency staff had reached the scene to deal with the injured, and as journalists together with Dagga had rushed to cowl the information. The strike has raised accusations of a “double faucet” — a sort of assault supposed to kill these responding to casualties and which consultants in worldwide legislation say is a attainable battle crime.

— Troops used high-explosive tank shells to strike a hospital, as an alternative of extra exact guided weapons that may have resulted in fewer casualties.

— In all, Israel struck the hospital 4 instances, the AP discovered, every time with out warning.

The Israeli navy refused to remark when requested if it hit the improper particular person and has offered no proof for his or her claims. It says it’s nonetheless investigating however of their preliminary inquiry described “gaps” in how the assault was carried out. Israel has stated not one of the journalists killed had been supposed targets, nor had been they linked to Hamas.

Israeli fireplace has killed 189 Palestinian reporters in Gaza, in response to the Committee to Shield Journalists. Israel has barred international journalists from coming into Gaza for the reason that battle erupted in October 2023, giving Palestinian journalists a essential position in overlaying the battle.

The AP’s evaluation relies on data from present and former Israeli navy officers, different officers and weapons analysts — and accounts from almost 20 individuals who had been in or close to the hospital on the time of the strikes.

The assault has galvanized international anger as Israeli forces push forward with a significant offensive in famine-stricken Gaza Metropolis, exposing its inhabitants to even larger hazard from Israeli bombardment and navy operations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu known as it a “tragic mishap″ however stopped in need of apologizing.

Protecting a digital camera with a fabric

Earlier than the assault, the Reuters journalist, al-Masri, was positioned along with his video digital camera excessive up on an exterior stairwell of Nasser Hospital. {A photograph} taken by Dagga in mid-August exhibits al-Masri on the identical stairwell subsequent to his digital camera, with a white fabric draped over it.

Within the weeks earlier than the strikes, al-Masri had broadcast reside nearly every day from the stairwell, in response to different journalists who labored there and hospital officers. 5 journalists advised the AP that he usually used the material. It’s common follow for video journalists around the globe, together with in Gaza, to make use of such excessive positions and to cowl their cameras to guard them from the weather.

Nasser Hospital, one of many few functioning hospitals in Gaza, has been an important location for Palestinian reporters.

It’s a central level for reporting on useless and wounded from Israeli strikes, shootings of Palestinians in search of assist and on malnourished individuals introduced in every day. The Wi-Fi sign supplied a uncommon dependable hyperlink to transmit information.

Photographers and videographers used the constructing’s exterior staircase for months to get a hen’s-eye view of town of Khan Younis — and within the case of worldwide information companies like Reuters and AP, to provide reside video footage to newsrooms around the globe. The AP had repeatedly knowledgeable the military that its journalists had been stationed there.

An Israeli navy official stated that a number of days earlier than the assault, Israeli forces noticed a digital camera on the roof and had been monitoring “suspicious habits,” which he didn’t specify.

The official stated the navy believed Hamas was utilizing the digital camera to observe its forces and stated the digital camera and the person working it had what they described as a towel draped over them, suggesting an effort at concealment. The official spoke on situation of anonymity in step with rules.

A second particular person was killed within the strike that hit al-Masri. Hospital officers have recognized all 22 useless, saying they had been a mixture of well being and rescue staff, journalists, and kin of sufferers. However they stated they might not make sure which ones was the opposite particular person killed within the first strike, since all of the our bodies had been collected on the similar time.

There was no proof of a second digital camera on the website the place al-Masri was killed.

At about the identical time as the primary stairway was hit, Israel struck one other a part of the hospital, in response to witnesses and video footage exhibiting smoke rising from the situation.

Israel has struck hospitals and journalists on repeated events all through the battle. Each are alleged to be protected below worldwide legislation, however hospitals can lose these protections if they’re used for navy functions and journalists can, too, if they’re armed or participate in hostilities.

Israel has accused Hamas of working in or round hospitals however has supplied restricted proof. Through the battle, Hamas safety males have usually been seen inside hospitals, blocking entry to some areas of the services.

Primarily based on evaluation of the footage on the time of the assault, and talking to a number of eyewitnesses, there isn’t a proof that anybody killed within the strikes was armed.

Double-tap strikes

The Israeli navy has given no reason why it carried out a second spherical of strikes.

After the primary assault, a crowd of medics, journalists and others made their method up the staircase. Ibrahim Qannan, a correspondent with Cairo-based Al-Ghad TV who was filming from under, stated one other journalist, Moaz Abu Taha, waved to to him and shouted all the way down to him, “Hussam was martyred.”

Inside 10 minutes, two extra loud blasts struck the staircase. Video evaluation revealed the flashes of two projectiles and the booms of two explosions. Amongst these killed was Dagga, who had simply snapped her final pictures earlier than heading up the steps, and Abu Taha.

Dagga’s brother Sediq had spent the earlier evening along with her and noticed her filming from the steps moments earlier than she was killed. “I rushed upstairs and recovered her physique,” he stated.

Double-tap strikes, which hit crowds that transfer into areas to rescue victims from preliminary strikes, have notoriously been utilized by al-Qaida and different extremist teams, in addition to Russia’s navy and forces loyal to former Syrian President Bashar Assad. First responders and different civilians are sometimes harmed in such assaults.

Specialists in worldwide legislation say a number of elements of this assault may level to potential battle crimes, together with concentrating on a hospital with out warning, and the double-tap technique that places civilians in peril.

Israel Ziv, a retired normal who as soon as led the Israeli military’s operations directorate, stated a double-tap strike would violate the military’s guidelines of engagement.

Raed al-Nims, head of the Palestinian Crimson Crescent’s media division in Gaza, stated double faucet strikes have “occurred a number of instances” within the battle, hitting the group’s ambulances and personnel after the arrive on the scene of assaults.

Israel declined to remark, citing the continuing investigation.

Tank fireplace was not alleged to have been used

AP analyzed movies of the assault and located that Israel fired tank shells within the strikes — which the Israeli navy confirmed following their preliminary inquiry.

Ziv stated much less lethal and extra exact choices than tank fireplace had been accessible.

“There isn’t a good rationalization for that,” he stated.

An official with data of the assault stated the tank wasn’t alleged to have been used, however was unable to say what the unique plans had been. The official spoke to AP on situation of anonymity to debate the continuing investigation.

A munitions professional who analyzed pictures of shrapnel from the hospital obtained by AP stated it got here from high-explosive shells fired by a tank.

The remnants present components of no less than three fin-stabilized tank gun projectiles, in keeping with these utilized by Israel, stated N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Analysis Companies, an Australian consulting agency.

Satellite tv for pc imagery from the afternoon of the day of the strike exhibits Israeli tanks and armored automobiles working about 4.5 kilometers (3 miles) northeast of the hospital.

The identical brigade that carried out these strikes, the Golani Brigade, was concerned within the March capturing of an ambulance convoy in southern Gaza that killed 15 Palestinian medics. An preliminary investigation of that assault by Israeli forces discovered a sequence of “skilled failures” and a deputy commander was fired.

Discrepancies over Israeli claims of fighters

A day after the strikes, Israel gave the names of six males who it stated had been combatants killed within the assault. However this assertion additionally raised troubling discrepancies.

It supplied no proof, and one man on its listing, Omar Kamel Shahada Abu Teim, doesn’t seem on the hospital’s listing of casualties obtained by the AP. Docs and morgue staff stated nobody by that title was killed, and in contrast to with the opposite 5, Israel didn’t present an image.

One other particular person named, Jumaa al-Najjar, was a well being care employee employed by Nasser Hospital, in response to the morgue listing. One other, Imad al-Shaer, was a driver for Gaza’s Civil Protection first responders.

The opposite three names seem on the casualty listing, however no different particulars about them had been instantly accessible.

Israel additionally didn’t say if any of the six had been killed in its preliminary strike on the digital camera. Most had been killed within the second spherical of strikes, and officers haven’t stated whether or not they had been recognized among the many crowd on the stairwell earlier than troops struck it.

The Well being Ministry and the Civil Protection are a part of the Hamas-run authorities. Israel has up to now claimed that some emergency responders had been fighters. That was the case within the March assault that killed 15 medics.

A joint letter from the AP and Reuters expressed outrage on the strikes and demanded solutions.

“Sadly, we’ve discovered the (Israeli navy’s) willingness and skill to research itself in previous incidents to hardly ever end in readability and motion, elevating critical questions together with whether or not Israel is intentionally concentrating on reside feeds with a view to suppress data,” they stated.

Prior to now, Israel has acknowledged concentrating on and killing journalists it accuses of being combatants, allegations denied by them and their employers. The navy says it tries to keep away from harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas as a result of it operates in densely populated areas.

Jody Ginsberg, the CEO of the Committee to Shield Journalists, stated journalists are civilians and must not ever be focused in a battle. “To take action is a battle crime,” she stated.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Related Press reporters Melanie Lidman and Angela Charlton in Jerusalem, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, contributed.

Initially Revealed: September 5, 2025 at 9:42 AM MDT