Israeli strike on Gaza hospital: no accountability after a year
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- Israeli forces killed 22 Palestinians in a double strike on Nasser Hospital on Aug. 25, 2025, including Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri and AP visual journalist Mariam Dagga, with no accountability a year later.
- An anonymous Israeli soldier told Breaking the Silence that the military could find no evidence linking al-Masri's camera to Hamas and that none of the six people Israel claimed were Hamas-linked was the intended strike target.
- AP reporting found one of the six Israel said was tied to Hamas was not on the hospital's casualty list and two others were medical or emergency personnel, undermining the military's stated rationale.
- The second strike killed 20 people — journalists and rescue workers rushing to help after the first blast — none of whom were armed, prompting "double tap" accusations that experts say would constitute a war crime; Israel hit the hospital four times with high-explosive tank shells.
- The Israeli military has not answered AP's detailed questions about the investigation or provided a timeline, saying only that findings will be sent to the Military Advocate General's Corps.
- Breaking the Silence described a "retroactive incrimination process" in which Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are automatically counted as militants, even when unarmed, serving as "near automatic justification" for strikes.
- Israel has killed 207 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, per the Committee to Protect Journalists, with foreign press barred from entering the territory.
Why it matters: The soldier's account — that the military knew it had no evidence tying al-Masri's camera to Hamas yet still killed 22 people including medical staff — directly contradicts Israel's public justification for the strike and, combined with Breaking the Silence's "retroactive incrimination" pattern, suggests the Hamas claims were manufactured after the fact. With the military announcing investigations into two other high-profile Gaza killings (Hind Rajab, 15 paramedics) while clearing troops in three aid-worker attacks, the Nasser Hospital case shows the accountability gap is systematic, not incidental — leaving 207 killed Palestinian journalists with no path to justice.
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