The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday that it would conduct an inquiry into an airstrike that hit the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, in which several rescue personnel and journalists were killed in a second strike.
It was initially unclear what caused the explosions at the hospital, but the IDF later acknowledged that Israeli troops had carried out a strike in the area, without specifying whether the hospital itself had been targeted.
The Associated Press said that one of its local stringers, Mariam Dagga (above), was among the dead.
In a statement, the IDF said:
Earlier today (Monday), IDF troops carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
The Chief of the General Staff instructed to conduct an initial inquiry as soon as possible.
The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such. The IDF acts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible while maintaining the safety of IDF troops.
Hospitals are protected from attack under international humanitarian law governing the conduct of war, though they may lose those protections if they are used by terrorists or other forces to launch attacks.
Israel has come under international criticism for past airstrikes on journalists, though in those cases the targets of the attack were also doing double duty as commanders or accomplices in terror organizations.
Khan Yunis is an area in southern Gaza that has not been the focus of the more recent push into Gaza City in the northern part of the territory, but Israeli soldiers have been experiencing attacks there in recent days
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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