A Gazan journalist was among the dead when the Israeli military raided a hospital in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday.
The strike, which Hamas said happened at dawn, ended a brief pause in fighting to allow the release of a U.S.-Israeli hostage.
The military said that Hamas members had been “operating from within a command and control center” at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city.
“The compound was used by the … to plan and execute … attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (army) troops,” it claimed.
The Gazan Health Ministry said the strike killed two people and wounded several others, while the media office said journalist Hassan Aslih was “assassinated.”
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the Gaza civil defense agency, said that “the Israeli army bombed the surgery building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at dawn Tuesday, killing journalist Hassan Aslih.”
Aslih, head of the Alam24 news outlet, had been at the hospital for treatment after being wounded in a strike on April 7, according to Ismail al-Thawabtah, director-general of the Gazan media office.
Two other journalists, Ahmed Mansur and Hilmi al-Faqaawi, were killed in that bombing that hit a media tent, it was reported at the time.
The Israeli military said the April strike had targeted Aslih, alleging he operated for Hamas “under the guise of a journalist.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists had condemned the attack.
AFP footage from Nasser Hospital after Tuesday’s strike showed smoke rising from the facility as rescuers searched through the rubble in torchlight.
A hospital worker who gave his name as Abu Ghali said the Israeli bombardment “does not differentiate between civilians and military targets.”
“This is a civilian hospital that receives injured people around the clock,” he told AFP.
Israel had paused military operations in Gaza to allow for the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old U.S.-Israeli soldier who had been held hostage since October 2023.
Alexander, believed to be the last surviving hostage with U.S. citizenship, was released Monday ahead of a Middle East visit by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the Palestinian group’s Oct. 7 incursion. The attack on southern Israel caused 1,218 deaths, according to official figures.
The Gazan Health Ministry said Monday that at least 2,749 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,862.
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