Allies, NGOs condemn Israel strike on Gaza hospital, killing five journalists

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Amnesty International said Tuesday that the Israeli army's extensive destruction of civilian property in south Lebanon, including after a ceasefire with Hezbollah, should be investigated as a war crime.

"The Israeli military's extensive and deliberate destruction of civilian property and agricultural land across southern Lebanon must be investigated as war crimes," Amnesty said in a statement.

The rights group's Erika Guevara Rosas said in the statement that the destruction had "rendered entire areas uninhabitable and ruined countless lives".

France's President Emmanuel Macron also condemned Israel's strike on the hospital.

"This is intolerable: civilians and journalists must be protected in all circumstances. The media must be able to carry out their mission freely and independently to cover the reality of the conflict," Macron said.

Journalist groups are condemning Israel's strike that killed five journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and others.

"The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Israeli strikes that killed five journalists in Nasser hospital in southern Gaza and calls for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its continued unlawful attacks on the press," The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement.

"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....We appeal to international leaders: do everything you can to protect our colleagues. We cannot do it ourselves," the Jerusalem-based Foreign Press Association said.

"The Syndicate affirmed that this heinous crime represents a dangerous escalation in the direct and deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists and confirms without a shadow of a doubt that the occupation is waging an open war on free media, with the aim of terrorizing journalists and preventing them from carrying out their professional mission of exposing its crimes to the world," the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said in a statement.

Norway's $2 trillion wealth fund, the world's largest, said on Monday it has divested from US construction equipment group Caterpillar as well as five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds.

The five banks are Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, First International Bank of Israel and FIBI Holdings, the fund said in a statement.

The groups were excluded "due to an unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict", said the fund, which Norway's central bank operates.

Caterpillar did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.

The fund's ethics watchdog, called the Council on
Ethics said that "in the council's assessment, there is no
doubt that Caterpillar's products are being used to commit
extensive and systematic violations of international
humanitarian law".

Canada condemned an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital on Monday that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, and said Israel had an obligation to protect civilians in the combat zone.

"Canada is horrified by the Israeli military strike at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, which killed five journalists and many civilians, including rescuers and health officials. Such attacks are unacceptable," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli security cabinet will meet Tuesday evening in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman said, with local media reporting it would discuss renewed negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Responding to a request from AFP, spokesman Omer Mantzour did not provide any details Monday on the meeting's agenda.

The security cabinet approved in early August a plan for the military to occupy Gaza City, but according to Israeli media, Tuesday's meeting is expected to focus on resuming negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages still being held in the Palestinian territory.

Medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was "heartbroken" by the death in the strike of a freelance photographer who had previously worked for it, Mariam Abu Dagga.

"As Israel continues to shun international law, the only witnesses of their genocidal campaign are deliberately being targeted. It must stop now," it said.

In Israel's fierce adversary Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai condemned the hospital strike as a "brutal war crime, planned and perpetrated by the Zionist regime as part of a plan for the genocide of the Palestinians".

He demanded the United States be held to account as "complicit" for supporting Israel.

Trump on Monday said there is a "very serious" diplomatic push on Gaza as the United States and Israel continue to pressure Hamas to release captives amid the ongoing conflict.

"It's never stopped. We've always looked to find a solution, or ultimately, as the president said, we want it to end. It has to end with no Hamas," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, speaking along with Trump at the White House ahead of a separate meeting with South Korea's president.

Qatar's foreign ministry condemned Israel's strike as "a new episode in the ongoing series of heinous crimes" by Israel.

"The occupation's approach of targeting journalists and relief and medical workers requires urgent and decisive international action to provide the necessary protection for civilians and ensure that the perpetrators of these atrocities do not escape punishment," it said in a statement.

The nation has been trying to mediate a ceasefire to the fighting in Gaza

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemns the killing of Palestinians in Israeli strikes that hit Nasser hospital in Gaza and calls for a prompt, impartial investigation, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.

"The Secretary-General recalls that civilians, including medical personnel and journalists, must be respected and
protected at all times. He calls for a prompt, impartial
investigation into these killings," Dujarric told reporters.

The death toll from Israel's latest airstrikes on Yemen's rebel-held capital has risen to 10, health authorities said Monday.

Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said in a statement that 10 people were killed in the strikes on the oil facility and power planet.

He said the strikes wounded 102 others, including seven children and three women. Twenty-one were in critical condition, he said.

Screenwriter Paul Laverty, best known for his collaborations with director Ken Loach including on the award-winning "I, Daniel Blake," was arrested Monday at a pro-Palestine protest for supporting a banned organisation, Scottish police said.

"Following a protest outside St Leonards Police Station (Edinburgh) on Monday, 25 August 2025, a 68-year-old man has been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 for showing support for a proscribed organisation," said Police Scotland. It later specified that the man was Laverty.

According to Scottish newspaper The National, Laverty was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan: "Genocide in Palestine, time to take action."

Laverty is being accused of supporting Palestine Action, which UK authorities proscribed as a terror group in July following acts of vandalism at a Royal Air Force base.

More than 700 people have been arrested, mostly at demonstrations, for supporting the group since it was outlawed under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Laverty is best known for his work with Loach, notably writing the screenplays for "I, Daniel Blake" (2016) and "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (2006), which both won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

(AFP)

A leading Israeli rights organisation said Monday that it had requested a military investigation into a senior commander over suspected war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

The request comes days after Major General Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli military in the West Bank, appeared in a video in which he called for curfews and encirclements of Palestinian villages.

His remarks, made in a video widely circulated in Israeli media, followed the arrest of a Palestinian man from the village of al-Mughayyir who was accused by the army of carrying out a "terrorist attack" nearby.

On Sunday, Israeli bulldozers uprooted hundreds of trees in al-Mughayyir in the presence of the Israeli military, according to AFP journalists who witnessed the scene.

Contacted by AFP about the request, the Israeli military did not provide immediate comment.

US president Donald Trump said on Monday that, while he wasn't aware of Israel's attack on Nasser Hospital, he is not happy about it.

"I'm not happy about it. I don't want to see it. At the same time, we have to end that ... nightmare," Trump told reporters at the White house.

The attack killed 20 people, including five journalists and four medical workers.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Germany's foreign ministry has expressed "shock" at Israel's attack on Nasser Hospital earlier today, and called for an investigation.

"We are shocked by the killing of several journalists, rescue workers, and other civilians in an Israeli airstrike on the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. This attack must be investigated," it wrote on X.

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn on Monday, medical sources tell Al Jazeera Arabic.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters San Frontiers and the International Federation of Journalists have condemned Israel's killing of five journalists at the Nasser Hospital.

CPJ’s Regional Director Sara Qudah called Israel's repeated targeting of journalists "the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced in recent history".

"These murders must end now. The perpetrators must no longer be allowed to act with impunity," she said in a statement.

More than 200 journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

RSF reiterated its call for an emergency UN Security Council resolution to prevent Israel from continuing to kill of journalists and allow international reporters to enter Gaza.

Meanwhile, the IFJ said it "strongly condemns the latest war crime perpetrated by Israel".

"To date, the IFJ has recorded at least 217 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli forces since the war started on 7 October 2023. We demand JUSTICE," it wrote on social media.

Spain's foreign minister has condemned Israel's attack on Nasser Hospital, calling it an "extremely serious violation of international humanitarian law".

"The Israeli attack today against a hospital in Gaza and against journalists, the deaths it has caused, the induced famine, all of these are extremely serious violations of international humanitarian law," José Manuel Albares wrote in a post on X.

"The war in Gaza must end now. Spain works every day for that."

Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was "horrified" by the attack.

Four healthcare workers were among the 20 people killed in Israel's attack on the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza earlier today, the head of the World Health Organisation has said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that more than 50 people were injured in the 'double tap' strike, which also killed five journalists and emergency responders.

The strike hit the hospital’s main building, which houses the emergency department, inpatient ward, and surgical unit, damaging the emergency staircase, he wrote in a post on X.

"While people in Gaza are being starved, their already limited access to health care is being further crippled by repeated attacks," he said.

"We cannot say it loudly enough: STOP attacks on health care. Ceasefire now!"

.@WHO received reports of two strikes on the Nasser Medical Complex this morning, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 people, including four health workers and five journalists. Fifty others were injured, among them critically ill patients who were already receiving care.

The… pic.twitter.com/XzTM4u0pAt

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 25, 2025

The United Nations insisted Monday that journalists and hospitals should never be targeted, after an Israeli strike on a hospital killed at least 20 people including five journalists.

"The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world - not into stunned silence but into action, demanding accountability and justice," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement, insisting: "Journalists are not a target. Hospitals are not a target."

(AFP)

The Palestinian Red Crescent has said one of its medics was injured in an attack while he was treating the wounded outside Nasser Hospital earlier today.

The humanitarian organisation posted a video on X appearing to show bullet holes in the windscreen and the side of a PRCS ambulance.

On Wednesday morning, the Israeli military conducted a 'double tap' strike on the hospital, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists and a number of medics and emergency responders.

Today, a Palestine Red Crescent medic was injured while performing his humanitarian duty inside Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Yunis, as he assisted the wounded following the Israeli occupation’s attack on the hospital.#Gaza pic.twitter.com/ckSWUagl9h

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 25, 2025

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel was ready to back Lebanon's efforts to disarm Hezbollah and offered "a phased" pullout of its troops if Beirut followed through with plans to seize the group's weapons.

Following the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah last year, the Lebanese army has been deploying in the country's south and dismantling the militant group's infrastructure there.

Lebanon has been grappling with the thorny issue of disarming Hezbollah, with the cabinet this month tasking the army with developing a plan to do so by the end of the year.

Despite the November ceasefire that ended the war, Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, saying it will do so until Hezbollah is disarmed.

Israeli forces also continue to occupy five areas of the south that they deem strategic.

"Israel stands ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah and to work together towards a more secure and stable future for both nations," said Netanyahu, according to a statement released by his office.

Belgium's foreign minister on Monday called for tougher action against Israel, on the same day five Palestinian journalists were killed in a strike against the al-Nasser Hospital.

"If the government does not take a tougher stance on human rights violations by the Israeli government or recognise Palestine, there is a risk of a major crisis," Maxime Prevot, who is also the deputy PM, told De Standaard on Monday.

He added that for him, Gaza is a "crucial issue".

Syria on Monday strongly condemned Israel's military incursion in the Damascus countryside, Reuters reported.

The founder of the fashion label Boxfresh issued a statement stating he has been banned from Brighton and Hove Albion football club for wearing a Palestine shirt. 

Roger Wade said he had been banned for five matches after wearing the kit at a Fulham game.

The shirt does not contain any political statements, but features the word 'Palestine' at the front, along with the flag.

Wade added that stewards confronted him and asked him to leave the area without providing a reason, and once he complained, he was issued a letter stating he had been banned.

The Turkish presidency condemned Israel's attack on Gaza's Nasser Hospital on Monday, saying that the country "has added yet another to its list of crimes against humanity and war crimes".

At least 20 people were killed in two separate attacks on the hospital. Among them were five journalists and several doctors and emergency responders.

"Press freedom and human values have once again been targeted, under the shadow of genocide, amidst the anguished cries of the innocent," Burhanettin Duran, the head of the Turkish presidential communications directorate, wrote on social media.

He continued: "Israel, which continues its oppressions without regard for any humanitarian or legal principles, is under the delusion that it can prevent the truth from being reported through its systematic attacks on journalists. It is pursuing the extermination of a nation under blockade and genocide."

The Foreign Press Association on Monday called for an "immediate explanation" from the Israeli military and prime minister's office, after an Israeli strike on a hospital killed five journalists.

"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 in a statement.

The death toll from Israel's attack on Nasser Hospital has risen to 20, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

Five journalists and several doctors and civil defence workers were among the dead. 

The number of journalists killed in Israel's 22-month war on Gaza has now reached 245.

The Israeli military killed 58 people and wounded 308 others in Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the local health ministry.

Among the dead were 28 people who were killed trying to receive aid. More than 2,100 aid seekers have been killed since the end of May, when the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took control of aid distribution in the strip. 

The overall death toll since 7 October 2023 has risen to 62,744 and 158,259 others have been injured, it said in its daily report. Thousands of others are thought to be buried beneath the rubble.

Reuters and the Associated Press said they were devastated after contributing journalists were killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital on Monday.

"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.

In a statement, the AP said that it was "shocked and saddened" to learn of the death of Mariam Abu Daqqa, 33, a visual journalist who freelanced for the agency since the start of the war.

(AFP and TNA staff)

The Israeli military has issued a statement confirming that it launched an attack "in the area of Nasser Hospital" but did not disclose what it was targeting.

Israel conducted a 'double tap' strike on the hospital earlier today, with an explosive drone hitting the fourth floor of of the hospital followed by a second when emergency responders had reached the scene.

Five journalists and an unknown number of emergency workers were killed.

It repeated previous claims that it does not intentionally target journalists and said it would open an investigation.

Israel has killed 244 media workers since 7 October 2023, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

An official at Nasser Hospital has told Al Jazeera that another journalist, Ahmed Abu Aziz, has died following Israel's attack on the facility earlier today.

Five journalists have now died following Israel's 'double tap' strike on the hospital, the only functioning hospital that remains in southern Gaza.

The Gaza health ministry has condemned Israel's strikes on Nasser Hospital as a "heinous crime" and urged the international community to protect what remains of Gaza's healthcare system and humanitarian workers.

"The Palestinian Ministry of Health – Gaza strongly condemns in the harshest terms the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation through its direct targeting of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis this morning, which is the only functioning public hospital in the southern Gaza Strip," it said in a statement.

It continued: "The occupation’s attack on the hospital today, killing medical teams, journalists, and civil defense crews, is a continuation of the systematic destruction of the health system, an ongoing genocide, and a blatant message of defiance to the entire world and to all values of humanity and justice."

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, will speak at the United Nations General Assembly next month, a foreign ministry official told AFP on Monday.

Sharaa "will take part in the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he will deliver a speech", the official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to brief the media, adding that he will be the first Syrian president to address the assembly since 1967.

(AFP)

The number of people killed in Israel's 'double tap' strike on Nasser Hospital this morning has risen to 19, according to Al Jazeera.

The strikes killed four journalists and injured another.

Reuters says that photojournalist Hatem Khaled was injured in the second strike to hit Nasser Hospital.

His colleague, photojournalist Hossam al-Masri, among the four journalists killed in the attack earlier this morning.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an emergency meeting in Jeddah on Monday to discuss the situation in Gaza.

"This extraordinary meeting aims to coordinate joint positions and efforts to confront the decisions and plans aiming to enshrine the full Israeli occupation and control over the Gaza Strip, as well as the Israeli crimes of genocide, starvation, displacement, blockade and the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip," the 57-member organisation said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council will vote Monday on the future of the blue helmet peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that has faced US and Israeli opposition.

The council will vote on a French-drafted compromise that would keep the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed in 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon, in place for one more year while it prepares to withdraw.

In the latest draft text seen by AFP, the council would signal "its intention to work on a withdrawal of UNIFIL with the aim of making the Lebanese Government the sole provider of security in southern Lebanon."

It was not clear if the US - which has been pushing alongside Israel to dismantle the peacekeeping force - would accept the compromise language, with a State Department spokesman previously telling AFP it would not comment on Council deliberations.

(AFP)

With today's bombing of the Nasser Hospital, the Israeli military has now killed 244 media workers since 7 October 2023, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

The number of people killed in the Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital has risen to 14, medics at the facility have told Al Jazeera.

Israel's airstrike on Nasser Hospital killed four journalists, according to reports.

Reuters photojournalist Hossam al-Masri, Al Jazeera photojournalist Mohammed Salama, journalist Mariam Abu Daqqa, who worked with the Associated Press and Independent Arabia, and Moaz Abu Taha, a journalist working for NBC, were all reportedly killed in the attack.

At least eight people were killed in an Israeli attack on southern Gaza's main hospital on Monday morning, according to the Gaza health ministry.

The ministry said the fourth floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was attacked in a 'double tap' strike', with one missile hitting the facility followed by a second targeting emergency responders

Reports say that a number of journalists were among those killed in the attack.

Another 11 people have died of starvation in Gaza over the past 24 hours, including two children, the local health ministry said this morning.

Malnutrition has now claimed the lives of 300 people, including 117 children, since the war started on 7 October 2023.

Israel's military chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the ceasefire proposed by Qatar and Egypt last week, according to Israeli media.

"There is a [captive] deal on the table, we need to take it," he was quoted as saying during a visit to the Haifa naval base by Israel's Channel 13 News.

"The Israeli military brought about the conditions for a deal, now it is in Netanyahu’s hands," he reportedly said.

Netanyahu's decision to press ahead with plans to occupy Gaza City is opposed by many in the country's defence establishment, including Zamir. More than 600 former security and military chiefs earlier this month issued a plea to US president Donald Trump to force Netanyahu to end the war.

Hamas last week agreed to a ceasefire proposed by Qatar and Egypt, which would see it free around half of the remaining captives in exchange for a 60-day truce, a surge of aid into Gaza, and the release of some Palestinian detainees.

Netanyahu has not responded to the proposal and instead pushed ahead with plans to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza and besiege Gaza City.

At least 20 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza on Monday, medical sources tell Al Jazeera Arabic.

Israel continued its bombardment across Gaza overnight on Monday, bombing Gaza City, Khan Younis and Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

An Israeli air attack on aid seekers in central Gaza reportedly killed at least one person and injured six.