A year on, no answers in Israeli strike that killed Gaza journalists
One year after a double strike on Nasser Hospital killed 22, including journalists, Israel has released no findings. A soldier's account challenges the official rationale.
A year has passed since Israeli forces struck Nasser Hospital in Gaza twice in quick succession, killing 22 Palestinians — among them journalists and rescue workers. No one has faced consequences, and the military has not disclosed the status of its investigation.
Israeli officials said the target was a suspected Hamas camera on the hospital roof. The dead included Hussam al-Masri, a cameraman, and Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist. Both were known to be working at the hospital, one of the few still functioning in Gaza at the time.
The military later said six of those killed had links to Hamas, without providing evidence. But an Israeli soldier, speaking anonymously, told a veterans' group that no such link was found for the camera — which belonged to al-Masri — and that none of the six was the intended target.
The first strike killed al-Masri and another person. As colleagues and medics rushed up an external staircase to help, a second strike killed 20 more. Footage and witnesses say none were armed. In total, the hospital was hit four times with high-explosive tank shells.
Questions remain about why troops did not identify al-Masri, why a second strike was ordered, and who approved the use of tank rounds after a drone attempt failed. Rights groups say Israel rarely prosecutes troops for killings in the territories, and that long inquiries often end without charges.
Last week, the military opened criminal investigations into two other high-profile incidents — the 2024 killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family, and the 2025 killing of 15 paramedics. It cleared troops in three other attacks on aid workers.
For families, the wait is unbearable. Al-Masri's brother said journalists' blood appears cheap. Dagga's father carries her phone and camera to her grave, saying no soldier's daughter would be forgotten this way.
Israeli forces have killed 207 Palestinian reporters since the war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. With foreign journalists barred from Gaza, local reporters have been essential to documenting the conflict — and, advocates say, increasingly vulnerable.