‘Horrified’ allies, critics condemn deadly strike on journalists in Gaza hospital

Israel’s strikes on a Gaza hospital on Monday drew strident condemnation from both allies and critics, who described their horror at the reported killing of 20 people, including rescue workers trying to evacuate the wounded and five journalists.

US President Donald Trump was asked for his reaction to the strike on Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital by a reporter in the Oval Office, but he said he did not know about it.

Pressed to provide a response anyway, Trump said, “I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it.”

“At the same time, we have to end that whole nightmare,” he added.

Footage showed rescue workers, who had arrived at the site of an initial attack, engulfed in smoke and debris when a second strike hit. Witnesses said journalists and other people had also rushed to the site of the first strike.

The Israel Defense Forces, some three hours after the reports of the attack emerged, confirmed that troops had carried out a strike in the area, and said it had launched an inquiry into the attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “deeply regrets” the strikes, calling it a “tragic mishap.”

“Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians. The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation,” read the statement.

“Our war is with Hamas terrorists. Our just goals are defeating Hamas and bringing our hostages home,” the PMO added.

British Foreign Minister David Lammy wrote on X: “Horrified by Israel’s attack on Nasser hospital. Civilians, healthcare workers and journalists must be protected. We need an immediate ceasefire.”

The German Foreign Ministry wrote on X on Monday that it was shocked by the killings at the hospital, adding, “The attack must be investigated.”

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron called the strikes “intolerable.”

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares also condemned the strikes.

“The Israeli attack today against a hospital in Gaza and against journalists, the deaths it has caused, the induced famine, all of these are extremely serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Albares wrote in a Spanish-language post on X, referencing allegations of widespread starvation in Gaza, which are denied by Israel.

“The war in Gaza must end now. Spain works every day for that,” added the minister.

In June, Albares asked the European Union Council to approve an immediate suspension of the pact that governs the bloc’s ties with Israel over what he called human rights violations in Gaza, and said he would also seek approval for an embargo on weapons sold to Israel and sanctions on individuals working against the two-state solution.

Turkey’s presidential communications office on Monday said the strikes on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital were “an attack on press freedom and another war crime.”

“Israel, which continues its atrocities without regard for any humanitarian or legal principles, is under the illusion that it can prevent the truth from being revealed through its systematic attacks on journalists,” Burhanettin Duran, head of the communications directorate, said in a post on X.

Palestinians gather outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 25, 2025, following Israeli strikes. (AFP)

Reporters Without Borders rates press freedom in Turkey 159th out of 180 countries it polls.

Top United Nations officials also slammed the strikes, insisting that journalists and hospitals should never be targeted.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the strikes, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

“The secretary-general recalls that civilians, including medical personnel and journalists, must be respected and protected at all times. He calls for a prompt, impartial investigation into these killings,” Dujarric told reporters.

“The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world — not into stunned silence, but into action, demanding accountability and justice,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement, insisting: “Journalists are not a target. Hospitals are not a target.”

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, separately decried what he says is “shocking” global inaction over the Gaza conflict.

He accused Israel of “silencing the last remaining voices reporting about children dying silently amid famine,” in a post on X.

#Gaza: more journalists killed today.
Silencing the last remaining voices reporting about children dying silently amid #famine .

The world’s indifference & inaction is shocking.

Like Hannah Arendt said: “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 25, 2025

The head of the World Health Organization said 50 people were wounded in the strikes, including critically ill patients who had already been receiving care.

“While people in #Gaza are being starved, their already limited access to health care is being further crippled by repeated attacks,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. “We cannot say it loudly enough: STOP attacks on health care. Ceasefire now!”

The Foreign Press Association said it is “outraged and in shock” by the strike.

“A group of journalists from several major international news outlets — including Reuters, AP, and Al Jazeera — have been killed together in Israeli military strikes,” said the FPA, which represents journalists working for international media in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

“This is among the deadliest Israeli attacks on journalists working for international media since the Gaza war began,” it said.

“These strikes hit the exterior staircase of the hospital where journalists frequently stationed themselves with their camera,” the FPA said, adding that they occurred “with no warning.”

The organization demanded an explanation from the IDF and the Prime Minister’s Office and an end to Israel’s “abhorrent practice of targeting journalists.”

“This has gone on far too long. Too many journalists in Gaza have been killed by Israel without justification,” it said, adding an appeal to world leaders: “Do everything you can to protect our colleagues. We cannot do it ourselves.”

#Palestine????????: [UPDATE 25.08.2025] An Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis killed 4 journalists: Hossam Al-Masri of @Reuters, Mohammed Salama of @AlJazeera, Moaz Abu Taha of @NBCNews and Maryam Abu Deqa of @AP and Independent Arab. pic.twitter.com/OClwQ7HBBt

— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) August 25, 2025

Israel, which says it has no policy of targeting journalists, has asserted that some of the journalists killed throughout the war were in fact combatants. In some cases, the military has provided documentation seized from terror groups in Gaza that list the journalists as fighters.

Hospitals have been frequent sites of fighting in the Gaza war, which started on October 7, 2023, with the Hamas terror group’s invasion, massacre, and hostage-taking in southern Israel.

Top Hamas official Ismail Barhoum was killed in a strike at Nasser Hospital in March. In May, a prominent Palestinian journalist, accused of being a Hamas operative, was killed in a strike at the Khan Younis medical center.

Hamas has in the past held hostages at Nasser Hospital, according to the IDF. Shifa Hospital, in the north of the Strip, was also used by Hamas to hold some hostages and as a command-and-control center early in the war, and was the site of fierce battles between Hamas fighters and IDF troops.