The international community expressed outrage Monday after Israel launched airstrikes on the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, killing at least 20 Palestinians, including patients, health workers, civil defense personnel and five journalists.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was horrified by the assault, calling for an immediate cease-fire. “Horrified by Israel's attack on Nasser hospital. Civilians, healthcare workers and journalists must be protected. We need an immediate ceasefire,” Lammy said on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the Israeli strikes "intolerable" and urged Tel Aviv to respect international law.
"This morning, new Israeli strikes on a hospital in Gaza caused the deaths of many civilians and journalists. This is intolerable: civilians and journalists must be protected under all circumstances," Macron wrote on X after he spoke with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani over the phone.
The French leader underscored that journalists must be able to carry out their mission "freely" and "independently" to "cover the reality of the conflict."
"Humanitarian aid must be allowed in. We call on Israel to respect international law," he noted.
In view of the conference on the two-state solution to be held in New York on Sept. 22, Macron reaffirmed that they are working closely with Qatar toward a permanent cease-fire, release of all hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
"Reducing a population to famine is a crime that must stop immediately," he also said.
In Israel's staunch European ally, Germany, the foreign ministry said it was "shocked by the killing of several journalists, rescue workers, and other civilians" in the Nasser Hospital strike.
"This attack must be investigated," the ministry said on X, also calling on Israel to "allow immediate independent foreign media access and afford protection for journalists operating in Gaza."
In Qatar, which has been trying to mediate a halt to the fighting in Gaza, the foreign ministry condemned the 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.
Iran's 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.
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 Daqqa.
"As Israel continues to shun international law, the only witnesses of their genocidal campaign are deliberately being targeted. It must stop now," it said.
The U.N. described the attack as “absolutely horrifying.” Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said watching the images of the strike was “unconscionable,” recalling previous assaults on hospitals. “We see a number of patients and the different mass casualty events that they have to deal with. It's really unthinkable what is happening,” she told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), decried “shocking” global inaction, stressing that Israel was silencing “the last remaining voices reporting about children dying silently amid famine.” He wrote on X: “The world's indifference and inaction is shocking.”
The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli warplanes hit the fourth floor of one of the hospital’s buildings with two strikes, the second targeting rescuers who had rushed to evacuate the wounded and recover the dead.
Among the dead were Palestine TV cameraman Hussam al-Masri, Al Jazeera photographer Mohammad Salama, photojournalists Mariam Abu Dagga and Moaz Abu Taha, and freelance reporter Ahmed Abu Aziz, who contributed to Tunisian and Moroccan outlets. Anadolu confirmed their deaths through medical sources.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel said it was “outraged and in shock,” calling the strike one of the deadliest assaults on international media since the Gaza war began. The group said the attack “hit the exterior staircase of the hospital where journalists frequently stationed themselves with their cameras” and came without warning.
“We call on Israel once and for all to halt its abhorrent practice of targeting journalists,” the FPA said in a statement. “This has gone on far too long. Too many journalists in Gaza have been killed by Israel without justification. This must be a watershed moment. We appeal to international leaders: Do everything you can to protect our colleagues. We cannot do it ourselves.”
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also condemned the killing of the journalists, urging immediate U.N. Security Council action. The group said five Palestinian journalists had been “deliberately targeted” by Israel at the Nasser Medical Complex.
RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin asked: “How far will the Israeli armed forces go in their gradual effort to eliminate information coming from Gaza? How long will they continue to defy international humanitarian law?” He emphasized that the protection of journalists is guaranteed under international law, recalling that the U.N. Security Council’s Resolution 2222 specifically addressed journalist safety in armed conflicts.
“Ten years after the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 2222, which protects journalists in times of conflict, the Israeli army is flouting its application,” Bruttin said. “RSF calls for an emergency Security Council meeting to ensure this resolution is finally respected, and that concrete measures are taken to end impunity for crimes against journalists, protect Palestinian journalists, and open access to the Gaza Strip to all reporters.”
The massacre at the Nasser Medical Complex adds to a growing list of attacks on hospitals, aid workers and members of the press, underscoring what Palestinians and rights groups describe as Israel’s systematic targeting of civilians and journalists. Global outrage continues to mount as calls grow for accountability and an end to Israel’s deadly campaign in Gaza.
Nasser Hospital is one of the last remaining health facilities in the Gaza Strip that is at least partially functioning.
Before the latest killings, media advocacy groups the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders said around 200 journalists had been killed in the Gaza war.
Earlier this month, four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers were killed in an Israeli air strike outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, prompting widespread condemnation.
Israel's genocidal war killed at least 62,744 Palestinians, most of them civilians, destroyed the blockaded Palestinian enclave's civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and shelters.
