One year after Israeli tank shells hit Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, killing 22 people including Reuters and AP journalists, no one has been held accountable. An Israeli soldier now says there was no evidence the camera on the roof was linked to Hamas, contradicting official claims and deepening concerns over a suspected “double tap” strike on rescuers and media workers.
A year after Israeli soldiers killed 22 Palestinians, including journalists and rescue workers, in a double strike on a hospital in Gaza, no one has been held accountable.
The August 25, 2025, strikes targeted Nasser Hospital, where Israeli officials said the military was trying to destroy a suspected Hamas camera on the roof.
Among those killed in the first strike was Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri and Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who worked for The Associated Press and other news organisations.
Despite repeated requests from AP, the Israeli military has provided no details about its investigation or a timeline for its completion. Rights groups say Israel rarely holds troops accountable for the killing of Palestinians, pointing to lengthy investigations that seldom result in prosecutions.
As international outrage grew after the strike, the Israeli military said that, in addition to destroying the camera, six of those killed had links to Hamas. It provided no evidence to support the claim.
An Israeli soldier, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, now says the military found no evidence linking the camera, which belonged to al-Masri, to Hamas. The soldier, who was privy to discussions surrounding the military’s response, also said none of the six people was the intended target of the strike.
AP sent detailed questions to the Israeli military about the allegations and other aspects of the strikes. The military did not directly address the questions but said in a text message that the incident was being examined and that its findings would be transferred to the Military Advocate General’s Corps, which would decide whether to open a criminal investigation. It did not provide a timeline.
AP reported at the time that one of the six people whom Israel said were linked to Hamas did not appear on the hospital’s casualty list, while two others were medical or emergency personnel.
Those findings, together with the soldier’s account, raise questions about the military’s rationale for the strike.
Why did Israeli troops fail to identify al-Masri as the cameraman, despite knowing that journalists regularly filmed from the hospital? Why did they carry out a second strike that killed most of the 22 victims, prompting accusations of a “double tap” attack targeting first responders — an act that could constitute a war crime?
“A year later, we remain devastated by their deaths and are still searching for answers from the Israeli authorities about what happened that day,” AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said.
“The information we have received to date has fallen short of the clear answers and accountability that an incident of this gravity requires,” she said.
News organisations including Reuters and AP used Nasser Hospital, one of the few functioning hospitals in Gaza at the time, to provide live video footage to newsrooms around the world. AP had repeatedly informed the Israeli military that its journalists were stationed there.
The first strike killed al-Masri and another person. As other journalists, including Dagga, and rescue workers rushed up an external staircase to help the wounded and document the aftermath, the military struck again, killing 20 people.
Footage and accounts from multiple eyewitnesses indicated that none of those killed was armed.
In total, Israel struck the hospital four times with high-explosive tank shells.
Israeli officials later said Hamas was using the camera to monitor nearby troops. They cited what they described as “suspicious behaviour” around the camera, pointing to a towel draped over it and the person operating it as evidence of an attempt to conceal the equipment.
Al-Masri routinely covered his equipment with a white cloth to protect it from the sun and dust, a common practice among video journalists working in Gaza and other hot climates.
The Israeli military last week announced criminal investigations into two other high-profile attacks by its troops in Gaza — the 2024 killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and the 2025 killing of 15 paramedics. It cleared troops in three other attacks that killed workers from international aid organisations.
The soldier who spoke to AP was connected to the news organisation through Breaking the Silence, a group founded more than two decades ago by Israeli military veterans that collects soldiers’ testimonies and has criticised Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.
The soldier said that after high-profile strikes that kill civilians without an apparent military purpose, Israeli military officials sometimes search retrospectively for links between those killed and militant groups.
Breaking the Silence said its testimonies point to a “retroactive incrimination process” in which Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are automatically classified as militants, even when they were unarmed.
Such retroactive incrimination is used as a “near automatic justification for every bullet, shell or missile fired, and as a tool used to avoid carrying out real investigations,” said Nadav Weiman, the group’s executive director.
AP independently confirmed some details of the soldier’s account, which is consistent with the military’s public response. Breaking the Silence said it had corroborated the account through its own sources.
The Israeli military has raided or besieged hospitals throughout the war, accusing Hamas of using them as command centres and hiding fighters. However, it has provided evidence for only some of those claims.
Hamas security personnel have been seen in hospitals during the war, controlling access to certain areas. Earlier this year, Doctors Without Borders suspended some operations at Nasser Hospital for several months after patients and staff reported seeing armed, masked men moving through parts of the facility.
The soldier and a former military official familiar with the incident said a senior Israeli army official initially approved the use of a precision weapon to destroy the camera, but an attempt using a drone failed for unknown reasons.
The former official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The division commander then approved an alternative method, according to the soldier, who did not say what that method was. It remains unclear who decided to use tank rounds, which can cause significantly greater damage than a drone strike.
Oded Ailam, former head of the counterterrorism division at Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, said ground commanders have some operational discretion but do not have a “blank check”.
“If the change is significant, particularly where it may affect the risk to civilians, it must remain within the authority, rules and intent of the original order, or require renewed approval,” he said.
Israeli troops have killed 207 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack triggered the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza, leaving Palestinian journalists to play a critical role in documenting the conflict.
Sara Qudah, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa regional director, said Israel has a responsibility to conduct a prompt and transparent investigation.
“When journalists can be killed without credible accountability, it becomes harder and more dangerous for the press to document conflicts and for the public to know what is happening,” she said.
For the families of those killed, the lack of answers has been agonising.
Ezz al-Din al-Masri said he still does not understand why his brother Hussam was killed.
“Unfortunately, we found that the blood of journalists in Gaza is cheap … as if the rules protecting journalists do not apply to them,” he said.
Dagga, 33, had taken her final photographs before rushing up the stairs following the first strike. Her father, Riyad Abu Dagga, carries her phone and camera whenever he visits her grave — items she always kept with her.
He also visits her apartment near Nasser Hospital and weeps.
“Had any of the daughters of the soldiers been killed unjustly, they would not have stayed silent,” he said of Israelis. “They would want to know why.”