No fewer than 20 people, including five journalists working for the international media, have been killed in an Israeli double strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
The journalists had worked with Reuters, AP, Al Jazeera and the Middle East Eye, the news outlets confirmed.
Four health workers were also killed, the World Health Organization’s chief said.
Footage of the attack shows a second strike hitting rescuers who had arrived to help those targeted by the initial attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a “tragic mishap” and said military authorities were “conducting a thorough investigation”.
The latest deaths brings the number of journalists killed in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023 to nearly 200.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a leading body which promotes press freedom, the war in Gaza has been the deadliest conflict for journalists ever documented. It says more press members have been killed there in the past two years than were killed worldwide in the prior three years.
International journalists have been banned by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip independently since the start of the war.
Some journalists have been taken into Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) under controlled access, but international media outlets rely on local reporters for much of their coverage in Gaza.
