The Israeli military yesterday said that it struck a Gaza hospital housing Hamas militants in a raid that, according to the Palestinian group, killed a journalist wounded in an Israeli attack last month.
The strike, which Hamas said happened at dawn, ended a brief pause in fighting to allow the release of a US-Israeli hostage.
The military in a Telegram post said that “significant Hamas terrorists” had been operating from within a command and control center at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city.
Photo: AFP
“The compound was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops,” it said.
Hamas in a statement said that the strike killed a journalist and wounded a number of civilians.
“The Israeli army bombed the surgeries building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis at dawn on Tuesday, killing journalist Hassan Aslih,” Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Aslih, head of the Alam24 news outlet, had been at the hospital for treatment after being wounded in a strike on April 7, Bassal said.
Two other journalists, Ahmed Mansur and Hilmi al-Faqaawi, were killed in that bombing, according to reports at the time.
The Israeli military said the April strike had targeted Aslih, alleging he worked for Hamas “under the guise of a journalist.”
It said Aslih had “infiltrated Israeli territory and participated in the murderous massacre carried out by the Hamas terrorist organization” on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the strike.
It said Aslih had worked for international media outlets until 2023, when the pro-Israeli watchdog HonestReporting published a photograph of him being kissed by then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The CPJ says at least 178 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the start of the war.
Israel had paused military operations in Gaza to allow for the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old US-Israeli soldier who had been held hostage since October 2023.
Alexander, believed to be the last surviving hostage with US citizenship, was released on Monday ahead of a visit to the Middle East by US President Donald Trump.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas.
The health ministry in Gaza on Monday said that at least 2,749 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,862.
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