Double-Tap Attack on Nasser Hospital Exposes Israel’s Brutality Against Media and Civilians

Israel has carried out another brazen attack in Gaza, striking Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis twice within minutes, killing at least 21 people, including five journalists, medics, and rescuers. This was not an accident. This was a double-tap strike, a method widely condemned as a war crime because it targets first responders and survivors of the initial attack.

The first shell hit the hospital’s upper floor, where media workers were positioned to cover the ongoing devastation. As journalists and medics rushed to help, a second blast tore through the staircase they were on. 

Eyewitness Hatem Sadeq Omar, himself wounded, described, “As we were evacuating the injured… the staircase was targeted for the second time. There were journalists, patients, nurses, civil defense on the stairs. We were directly targeted.”

Among the martyrs were Hussam al-Masri (Reuters), Mohammed Salama (Al Jazeera), Mariam Abu Dagga (Associated Press), and freelancers Moaz Abu Taha and Ahmed Abu Aziz. Medical staff and a civil defense worker also lost their lives.

Israel first tried to frame this as an unfortunate error. Prime Minister Netanyahu called it a “tragic mishap”, a hollow phrase repeated after countless massacres. 

Later, an Israeli official admitted that the IDF intentionally struck what it claimed was a Hamas surveillance camera, using two tank shells, one at the camera, the other at those coming to rescue the wounded. This is a clear admission of a double-tap strike, a tactic condemned as a war crime under international law.

Media watchdogs and human rights bodies have had enough. “So in both instances, it looks like Israel has committed unlawful killings, war crimes,” said Jodie Ginsberg of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 

The UN Human Rights Office warned,“The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world not into stunned silence, but into action demanding accountability and justice.”

Global outrage followed. The UN Secretary General demanded journalists and medics be protected “at all times.” Canada called the attack “unacceptable.” 

The EU said, “Civilians and journalists must be protected under international law.” Countries from Germany to Qatar condemned the assault. Even U.S. President Trump, usually cautious with criticism, said, “I’m not happy about it… I don’t want to see it.”

Journalist unions and media houses were blunt: “This is an open war against free media,” declared the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. Media channels label Israel of trying to “suppress information.” Al Jazeera called it a “horrific crime” and said the killings “violated all international norms and laws, amounting to war crimes under the Rome Statute and the Geneva Conventions.”

This atrocity is not isolated. Two weeks ago, Israel assassinated Al Jazeera’s Anas Al Sharif and four other journalists. Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 270 journalists in Gaza, making this the deadliest war for journalists in modern history.

The Nasser Hospital attack also underscores the genocide Israel is committing. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports 62,000 Palestinians killed in two years, nearly half of them women and children. Hospitals, protected under international law, are being turned into graveyards. 

The same Nasser Hospital, one of the last partially functioning facilities in southern Gaza, has faced repeated bombardment despite severe shortages of medicine, electricity, and food.

For the martyred journalists, Marriam Abu Dagga, told reporters last year, “We are covering the war on Gaza because this is our journalistic duty. It is entrusted upon us.”

Her cousin said she longed to see her son evacuated from Gaza. “She was waiting for the war to end to see her son,” he said. That day never came.

Israeli offensive strikes are a part of its systematic policy of silencing voices and terrorizing civilians. Every double-tap strike, every bomb on a hospital, every murdered journalist tears away the mask of Israeli propaganda claiming “self-defense.” 

For now, journalists in Gaza continue to risk and lose their lives to tell the world what is happening.