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GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said five journalists were among at least 15 people killed Monday when Israeli strikes hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said “the death toll is 15, including four — subsequently updated to five — journalists and one civil defense member,” after strikes hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
According to media watchdogs, around 200 journalists have been killed in nearly two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
When asked by AFP about strikes targeting a building at the medical complex, the Israeli military said it was checking the reports.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said a group of reporters had “been martyred in the line of journalistic duty, as a result of the Israeli bombing that targeted them at Nasser Hospital.”
In a statement, it named the reporters as photojournalists Hossam Al-Masri, Mohammad Salama and Mariam Dagga, and journalist Moaz Abu Taha. It later updated its tool to include journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz, who was also killed in the strike.

A spokesperson for Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera on Monday confirmed its photojournalist and cameraman Mohammad Salama was killed in the attack on the medical complex.
The four others worked with some Palestinian and international outlets, according to AFP journalists.
Associated Press said Mariam Dagga was a freelancer for the news agency but was not on an assignment with the media outlet when she was killed.
Reuters said that one of the journalists killed and one of those injured were contractors for the news agency.
The civil defense’s Bassal said an Israeli explosive drone targeted a building at Nasser Hospital, followed by an air strike as the wounded were being evacuated.


Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.
AFP footage from the immediate aftermath of the attack showed smoke filling the air and debris from the blast on the floor outside the hospital.
Palestinians rushed to help the victims, carrying bloodied bodies and severed body parts into the medical complex. One body could be seen dangling from the top floor of the targeted building as a man screamed below.
A woman wearing medical scrubs and a white coat was among the injured, carried into the hospital on a stretcher with a heavily bandaged leg and blood all over her clothes.
Before the latest killings, media advocacy groups the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders said around 200 journalists had been killed in the Gaza war.
Earlier this month, four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers were killed in an Israeli air strike outside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, prompting widespread condemnation.
The Israeli military alleged that Anas Al-Sharif — a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent killed in the strike — headed a Hamas “terrorist cell” and was “responsible for advancing rocket attacks” against Israelis.
The CPJ slammed that strike, saying journalists should never be targeted in war.
“Journalists are civilians. They must never be targeted in war. And to do so is a war crime,” Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of the CPJ, told AFP at the time.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

RIYADH: The Media Freedom Coalition, which promotes press freedoms worldwide, called Thursday for Israel to allow independent, foreign news organizations access to the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

“Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war,” said a joint statement signed by members of the coalition from 27 countries, including Britain, France and Germany.

The statement also condemned the violence directed against journalists and media workers, and called on Israeli authorities and all other parties “to make every effort to ensure that media workers in the conflict area can conduct their work freely and safely.” 

“Deliberate targeting of journalists is unacceptable. International humanitarian law offers protection to civilian journalists during armed conflict,” the statement said, adding that every attack against media workers must be investigated and those responsible prosecuted.

The other signatories were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international media during the war, in which at least 242 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed.

A post on the United Nation's website on August 12, 2025, cited a UNESCO report saying that since October 2023, at least 62 journalists and media workers had been killed in the line of duty in Palestine, excluding deaths in circumstances unrelated to their work. It also cited a report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, saying that at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the same time frame. 

Since the Israeli invasion of Gaza in October 2023, at least 62,192 Palestinians have been killed according to a Gaza Health Ministry report on Thursday. Another two people have died from malnutrition-related causes, bringing the total number of such deaths to 271, including 112 children, the ministry said.

Hamas-led militants started the war when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

(With AP)