Tank shelling carried out by the Israeli military on Nasser Hospital in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip on Monday morning killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, according to media reports and the Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israel Defense Forces, some three hours after the reports of the attack emerged, confirmed that troops had carried out a strike in the area.

Footage showed rescue workers, who had arrived at the site of an initial attack, engulfed in smoke and debris when a second strike hit. Witnesses said journalists and other people had also rushed to the site of the first strike.

A military official told The Times of Israel that the attack was not conducted by the Israeli Air Force, indicating it was likely carried out by ground forces.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered an immediate inquiry into the strike, the military said, without providing further details.

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“The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved [civilians] and in no way directs strikes at journalists,” the IDF said, adding that it works to “minimize harm to them while safeguarding the security of our forces.”

One of the Israeli strikes on the Nasser hospital complex was captured on live video as rescue crews arrived at the scene of an Israeli strike minutes before. pic.twitter.com/uysRPPkl4E

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 25, 2025

Military officials told Hebrew-language media outlets that an Israeli army tank team shelled a camera stationed at the hospital,  believing the device was being used to track troops. Two shells were fired by the tank, the officials said, with the first targeting the camera and the second hitting rescuers who were operating at the scene.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, in an English-language video statement, said the IDF does not “intentionally target civilians” in the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF makes every effort to mitigate harm to civilians, while ensuring the safety of our troops,” he said. “We are operating in an extremely complex reality. Hamas terrorists deliberately use civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as shields. They have even operated from the Nasser Hospital itself.”

“Hamas began this war, created impossible fighting conditions, and is preventing its end by still holding 50 hostages,” he added.

“Having said that, as a professional military, committed to international law, we are obligated to investigate our operations thoroughly and professionally. The chief of the general staff has instructed that an inquiry be conducted immediately to understand the circumstances of what happened and how it happened,” Defrin said.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin issues a video statement, August 25, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Addressing the deaths of several journalists, he noted that “reporting from an active war zone carries immense risk, especially in a war with a terrorist organization such as Hamas, who cynically hides behind the civilian population.”

Defrin said that “as always, we will present our findings as transparently as possible.”

“We regret any harm to uninvolved individuals and are committed to continue fighting Hamas, while taking all the necessary precautions,” he added.

According to the Foreign Press Association, the strikes “hit the exterior staircase of the hospital where journalists frequently stationed themselves with their cameras.”

A man reacts as he holds the equipment used by Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, at the site where he was killed along with other journalists and people in alleged Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still image taken from a video shot by Reuters contractor Hatem Khaled, who was wounded shortly afterwards in another strike while he was filming the site, August 25, 2025. (REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)tank

Cameraman Hussam al-Masri, a Reuters contractor, was killed in the first strike, according to Palestinian officials. Photographer Hatem Khaled, who was also a Reuters contractor, was wounded in a second strike on the hospital, they said.

Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, a contractor for Reuters who was killed in alleged Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital on August 25, 2025, stands next to his camera as he works at the hospital in this undated picture. (REUTERS / Mohammed Salem)

Reuters said al-Masri had been operating a live video feed from the hospital, which suddenly shut down at the moment of the initial strike.

Reuters and other news providers often deliver live video feeds to media outlets worldwide during major news events to show the scene from the ground in real time. Reuters had frequently broadcast a feed from Nasser hospital during the Gaza conflict, and for the past several weeks had been delivering daily feeds from the Nasser hospital position that was hit.

A live feed of Gaza provided by Reuters, seen moments before the camera position was seemingly struck by an apparent IDF shell, on August 25, 2025. (Screen capture)

A review of Masri’s live feed from before the strike did not appear to show any soldiers.

The IDF has not confirmed the details of the reports.

Previously, the military has said that striking sensitive sites in Gaza, such as hospitals, requires the approval of senior officers, including the chief of the Southern Command and the IDF chief of staff.

The army’s investigation is set to include the question of who approved the strike.

According to the Foreign Press Association, the strikes “hit the exterior staircase of the hospital where journalists frequently stationed themselves with their cameras. The strikes came with no warning.”

“We demand an immediate explanation from the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. We call on Israel once and for all to halt its abhorrent practice of targeting journalists,” the group said, leveling an accusation that Israel strenuously denies.

Palestinians gather outside Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 25, 2025, following Israeli strikes that were said to leave at least 20 dead, including journalists. (Photo by AFP)

“This has gone on far too long. Too many journalists in Gaza have been killed by Israel without justification,” the statement continued, noting that “Israel continues to block international journalists from independent access to Gaza.

“This must be a watershed moment. We appeal to international leaders: do everything you can to protect our colleagues. We cannot do it ourselves,” the association concluded.

Journalists affiliated with Reuters, AP, and Al Jazeera killed

“We are devastated to learn of the death of Reuters contractor Hussam al-Masri and injuries to another of our contractors, Hatem Khaled, in Israeli strikes on the Nasser hospital in Gaza today,” a Reuters spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are urgently seeking more information and have asked authorities in Gaza and Israel to help us get urgent medical assistance for Hatem,” the Reuters spokesperson said.

استشهاد أربعة صحفيين باستهداف مستشفى ناصر في #غزة
حسام المصري، مصور صحفي مع وكالة رويترز للأنباء.
محمد سلامة، مصور صحفي مع قناة الجزيرة.
مريم أبو دقة، صحفية مع عدة وسائل إعلام بينها اندبندنت عربية وAP.
معاذ أبو طه، صحفي مع شبكة NBC الأمريكية. pic.twitter.com/bphE5WfZbp

— Khaled Drareni (@khaleddrareni) August 25, 2025

The Associated Press said it was “shocked and saddened” to learn of the death of Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist who freelanced for the agency since the start of the war.

Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with the Associated Press and other outlets during the Gaza war, poses for a portrait in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on June 14, 2024. She was among at least 19 people, including four journalists, killed Monday in alleged Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. (AP Photo / Jehad Alshrafi)

Health officials in Gaza named the other two journalists as Mohammed Salama, who Qatar-based Al Jazeera said worked for the broadcaster, and Moaz Abu Taha.

A rescue worker was also among those killed, the health officials added.

Palestinian journalists group says 240 killed since war’s start

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned Israel for the strikes, saying it represented “an open war against free media, with the aim of terrorizing journalists and preventing them from fulfilling their professional duty of exposing its crimes to the world.”

According to the group, more than 240 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the war started on October 7, 2023 with the Hamas terror group’s invasion, massacre, and hostage-taking in southern Israel.

Palestinian medics evacuate a member of the territory’s civil defense agency who was wounded in Israeli strikes on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 25, 2025; the agency, which is run by Hamas, said 20 were killed, including journalists. (AFP)

Israel, which says it has no policy of targeting journalists, has asserted that some of the journalists killed throughout the war were in fact combatants. In some cases, the military has provided documentation seized from terror groups in Gaza that list the journalists as fighters.

Hospitals have been frequent sites of fighting in the Gaza war.

Top Hamas official Ismail Barhoum was killed in a strike at Nasser Hospital in March. In May, a prominent Palestinian journalist, accused of being a Hamas operative, was killed in a strike at the Khan Younis medical center.

Hamas has in the past held hostages at Nasser Hospital, according to the IDF. Shifa Hospital, in the north of the Strip, was also used by Hamas to hold some hostages and as a command-and-control center early in the war, and was the site of fierce battles between Hamas fighters and IDF troops.

COGAT publishes graphic footage of Hamas hurting Gazans

Also Monday, the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) published graphic footage it said depicts Hamas gunmen “beating, abusing, and shooting at Gaza residents across the Strip.”

According to COGAT, the footage has circulated on social media in recent days. COGAT did not provide any further details on the videos.

“Hamas embodies the essence of evil. The shocking footage illustrates how the terrorist organization Hamas oppresses the population, abuses civilians, and uses unrestrained violence against people in order to maintain its bloody rule and consolidate its power,” said COGAT chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian in a post on X.

“Hamas once again proves that it does not represent the residents of Gaza — it rules over them with force, fear, and cruelty,” he added.