Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza killed 4 journalists Monday, including a freelancer who worked for The Associated Press, in accordance with health officials.
Mariam Dagga, 33, a visible journalist, freelanced for the AP throughout the conflict, in addition to other news outlets. The AP said in a press release that it was shocked and saddened to learn of Dagga’s death, together with those of other journalists.
Two missiles hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, medical officials said. In all, 19 people were killed, in accordance with Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.
The Israel-Hamas conflict has been considered one of the bloodiest conflicts for media employees, with at the very least 192 journalists killed in Gaza within the 22-month conflict, in accordance with the Committee to Protect Journalists. Comparatively, 18 journalists have been killed thus far in Russia’s war in Ukraine, in accordance with the CPJ.
Dagga, who has a 12-year-old son who was evacuated from Gaza earlier within the conflict, often based herself at Nasser, most recently reporting on the hospital’s doctors struggling to avoid wasting children from starvation. Independent Arabia, the Arabic language version of the British Independent, said Dagga also worked with the organization.
“We’re doing the whole lot we are able to to maintain our journalists in Gaza secure as they proceed to offer crucial eyewitness reporting in difficult and dangerous conditions,” the AP said.
Get each day National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Al Jazeera confirmed that its journalist Mohammed Salam was also amongst those that were killed within the Nasser strike. Reuters reported that its contractor cameraman Hussam al-Masri was killed and its contractor photographer Hatem Khaled wounded. It was not immediately clear who the fourth journalist killed was.
The Israeli military said its troops carried out a strike in the world of Nasser Hospital and that it will conduct an investigation into the incident. The military said it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and doesn’t goal journalists as such.”
Thibaut Bruttin, the director general of Reporters Without Borders, said press freedom advocates had never seen such a severe step backward for reporters’ safety. He noted that journalists have been killed each in indiscriminate strikes and in targeted attacks that Israel’s military has acknowledged carrying out.
“They’re doing the whole lot they will to silence independent voices which are attempting to report on Gaza,” Bruttin said.
In some cases, equivalent to with Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who was targeted and killed by Israel earlier this month, Israel has accused journalists in Gaza of being a part of militant groups. Israel’s military asserted that al-Sharif had led a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif previously dismissed as baseless.
Apart from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international media from covering the conflict. News organizations as a substitute rely largely on Palestinian journalists in Gaza — in addition to residents — to point out the world what is going on there. Israel often questions the affiliations and biases of Palestinian journalists but doesn’t permit others in.
Most of the journalists working in Gaza are facing the identical struggles to search out food, for themselves and their families, because the people they’re covering.
In considered one of Dagga’s last social media posts on Sunday, she published a selfie of herself.
© 2025 The Canadian Press