Israel strikes tents near hospitals in Gaza, killing & wounding reporters

Relatives mourn over the body of 14-year-old Palestinian Omar Muhammad Saadeh Rabee in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday AFP

Deir al-Balah

Israel struck tents outside two major hospitals in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least two people, including a local reporter, and wounding another nine, including six reporters, medics said on Monday. Twenty-eight other people were killed in separate strikes across the territory, according to hospitals.

Israel has carried out waves of strikes across Gaza and ground forces have carved out new military zones since it ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month. Israel has barred the import of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid for well over a month as it seeks to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement they reached in January.

A strike on a media tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at around 2 a.m. set the tent ablaze, killing Yousef al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine Today news website, and another man, according to the hospital. Six other reporters were also wounded in the strike.

The Israeli military said it hit a Hamas militant, without providing further information. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because it is deeply embedded in residential areas. Israel also struck tents on the edge of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, wounding three people, according to the hospital.

Nasser Hospital said it received another 20 bodies, including eight women and five children, from separate strikes overnight and into Monday. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said two additional strikes on homes in Deir al-Balah killed eight people, including three women and three children. Thousands of people have sheltered in tents set up inside hospital compounds throughout the 18-month war, assuming Israel would be less likely to target them.

Israel has raided hospitals on several occasions, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, allegations denied by hospital staff. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, rampaging through army bases and farming communities and killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.