DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A deadly Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital that killed 20 people, including five journalists, was targeting what the military believed was a Hamas surveillance camera, as well as people identified as militants, the Israeli military said Tuesday.
The military issued the statement as part of its initial inquiry into the attack, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “tragic mishap."
The military said the back-to-back strikes on southern Gaza’s largest hospital were ordered because soldiers believed militants were using the camera to observe Israeli forces and because Israel has long believed Hamas and other militant groups are present at hospitals, though Israeli officials rarely provide evidence to support that claim.
The military’s chief of general staff acknowledged several “gaps” in the investigation so far, including the kind of ammunition used to take out the camera.
The initial findings emerged Tuesday as a surge of outrage and unanswered questions mounted, after international leaders and rights groups condemned the strikes.
“The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world,” said United Nations Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan. “Not into stunned silence but into action, demanding accountability and justice.”
Among the journalists killed in the strikes was Mariam Dagga, who worked for The Associated Press and other publications.
The Israeli military said there is an ongoing investigation into the chain of command that approved the strike. A military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines said both of the strikes that hit the hospital were launched from a tank.
Known as “double taps,” such consecutive strikes have drawn condemnation in wars in Ukraine and Syria, particularly when they hit civilians or medical workers rushing to help.
Israel has attacked hospitals multiple times throughout 22 months of war in Gaza, asserting that Hamas embeds itself in and around the facilities. Hamas security personnel have been seen inside such facilities over the course of the war, and parts of them have been off limits to reporters and the public.
Among the six people killed Monday that Israel claimed were militants was Imad al-Shaar, a driver with Gaza's civil defense agency, which operates under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, according to the agency and Nasser hospital’s casualty list.
Israel has in the past identified emergency responders that work under the Hamas-run government as militants to be targeted, including in the killing of 15 medics in March, when Israeli troops opened fire on ambulances in southern Gaza.
Protests in Israel as Netanyahu meets with security cabinet
Earlier Tuesday, protesters in Israel set tires ablaze, blocked highways and clamored for a ceasefire that would free hostages still in Gaza, even as Israeli leaders moved forward with plans for an offensive into Gaza City that they argue is needed to defeat Hamas.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza braced for the expanded offensive against a backdrop of displacement, destruction and parts of the territory plunging into famine.
Netanyahu was expected to convene a security cabinet meeting later Tuesday. However, the government said the meeting would not include discussion of ceasefire talks, according to an official with knowledge of the situation. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, said there was a delegation from Egypt in Israel on Monday, and they discussed the negotiations.
Netanyahu has said that Israel will launch its expanded offensive in Gaza City while simultaneously pursuing a ceasefire, though Israel has yet to send a negotiating team to discuss a proposal on the table. Netanyahu has said the offensive is the best way to weaken Hamas and return hostages, but hostage families and their supporters have pushed back.
“Go back to the negotiation table. There’s a good deal on the table. It’s something we can work with,” said Ruby Chen, the father of 21-year-old Itay Chen, a dual Israeli-American citizen whose body is being held in Gaza. "We could get a deal done to bring all the hostages back.”
Hamas took 251 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023, in the attack that triggered the current war. Most have been released during previous ceasefires. Israel has managed to rescue only eight hostages alive. Fifty remain in Gaza, and Israeli officials believe around 20 are still alive.
Responding to a call from Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum for a “National Day of Struggle,” protesters waved banners that read “Hostage Deal Now.” The relatives of hostages said they hope sustained public pressure can push Netanyahu and his security cabinet to commit to meaningful ceasefire talks. However, far-right members of his coalition have dismissed the protesters’ demands and threatened to resign if Israel agrees to a truce.
“We could have ended the war a year ago and brought all the hostages and soldiers home. We could have saved hostages and soldiers, but the prime minister chose, again and again, to sacrifice civilians for the sake of his rule," said Einav Zangauker, whose 25-year-old son, Matan, was abducted from one of Israel's hardest hit kibbutzim is among those believed to still be alive.
Israeli strikes continue after hospital attack
Israel's military wants people in hospitals, displacement camps and Gaza City neighborhoods to evacuate southward to so-called safe zones so it can destroy Hamas and prevent attacks like the assault that killed about 1,200 people and triggered the war.
A day after the hospital strike, Israeli strikes killed at least 16 Palestinians on Tuesday, hospitals said.
Officials from Nasser Hospital, Shifa Hospital and Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan clinic reported that among the 16 were families, women and children.
Also Tuesday, Gaza's Health Ministry said that three more adults died of causes related to malnutrition and starvation, bringing the malnutrition-related death toll to 186 since late June, when the ministry started to count fatalities in that category. The toll includes 117 children since the start of the war.
Israel’s military offensive has killed 62,819, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
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Lidman reported from Jerusalem, and Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sam Metz in Jerusalem and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
By Wafaa Shurafa, Melanie Lidman And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press
