Four journalists were among those killed Monday by Israeli missile strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that claimed the lives of at least 19 people—an attack described by one Palestinian faction as representative of the "absolute brutality" of Israeli forces that have repeatedly targeted journalists, healthcare workers, and medical facilities over the last two years.
The bombing of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis followed a weekend of military attacks across the Gaza Strip, with at least 51 people, mostly civilians, killed across Gaza City on Sunday alone.
Al-Jazeera reports that photographer Mohammad Salama, who worked for the news outlet, was killed in Monday's attack. Others identified by the Gaza’s Government Media Office were: Hussam al-Masri, a photojournalist who worked for Reuters; Mariam Abu Daqqa, who worked as a journalist with several media outlets, including The Independent Arabic and the Associated Press; and Moaz Abu Taha, who worked for NBC News.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a left-wing secular faction in occupied Palestine, condemned the Israeli bombing, denouncing it as proof of "the absolute brutality and sadism of the occupation.”
The PFL said the attack targeted "patients and civilians, followed by ambulance crews, civil defense personnel, and journalists, live on air." The group said that both Israel and its allies, including the US government of President Donald Trump, should be held "fully responsible for this organized crime."
Monday's strike that killed the journalists, which reportedly came as rescuers were trying to save people injured during a previous strike, was captured live on camera at Nasser when the second missile hit.
"This is what a live-streamed genocide looks like," said Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns for the UK-based group Medical Aid for Palestinians. "These are not 'incidents,' they are systematic murder."
Following a targeted strike earlier this month that killed five journalists near the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) once again denounced the pattern of killings that have made Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza one of the most deadly conflicts ever for reporters.
"Israel is murdering the messengers," said CPJ regional director Sara Qudah at the time.
Though attacking hospitals is a violation of the international laws of war and a designated war crime, Talbot said Monday that Israel's "targeting of Gaza's hospitals continues, because impunity persists."
With the number of journalists killed in Gaza now at 244, according to estimates, Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian physician and politician who serves as General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, also known as al-Mubadara, said Monday that Israel, with such attacks, "is trying to silence any reporting of its war crimes in Gaza."
