Takeaways from AP reporting on Israeli strike on Gaza hospital that killed journalists and medics

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Gaza’s Nasser Hospital became a death trap for rescue workers, journalists and others last week when it was targeted by Israeli forces in an attack that has galvanized global anger. Associated Press reporting raises serious questions about Israel’s rationale for the attack and the way it was carried out.

Israel has promised to investigate “gaps” in its understanding of the attack, which killed 22 people in a succession of tank strikes, including five journalists — among them Mariam Dagga, who worked for AP and other news organizations.

The AP’s analysis is based on information from current and former Israeli military officials, other officials and weapons analysts, and accounts from nearly 20 people who were in or near the hospital at the time of the strikes.

Here are some takeaways:

The military struck a hospital well known as a journalists’ gathering point. It believed a video camera positioned there was being used by Hamas to observe Israeli forces nearby because it had a towel draped over it, along with other unspecified intelligence, according to a military official.

AP evidence indicates the camera in question actually belonged to a Reuters video journalist who routinely covered his equipment with a white cloth to protect it from the scorching sun and dust. The journalist, Hussam al-Masri, was killed in the initial strike.

A photograph taken by Dagga in mid-August shows al-Masri on the same stairwell that was struck — next to his camera, with a white cloth draped over it. Five journalists told the AP that he often used the cloth. In the weeks before the strikes, al-Masri had broadcast live almost daily from the stairwell, according to other journalists who worked there and hospital officials.

Witnesses said a drone frequently observed the position, including about 40 minutes before the attack.

The Israeli army refused to comment when asked if it hit the wrong person and has presented no evidence for its claims. Israel has said none of the journalists killed were intended targets and none were linked to Hamas.

Troops hit the same stairwell minutes after medical and emergency workers and journalists gathered there to help casualties from the first strike. That has raised accusations of a “double tap” — a type of attack intended to kill those responding to casualties, which rights groups say is a potential war crime.

Videos analysis by AP revealed that there were at least four explosions, two during the first strike and two during the second, each time without warning.

The Israeli military has given no explanation for why it carried out a second round of strikes.

Double-tap strikes, which hit crowds that move into areas to rescue victims from initial strikes, have notoriously been used by al-Qaida and other extremist groups, as well as Russia’s military and forces loyal to former Syrian President Bashar Assad.

AP analyzed videos of the attack and found that Israel fired high-explosive tank shells in the strikes — which the Israeli military confirmed following their initial inquiry.

Israel Ziv, a retired general who once led the Israeli army’s operations directorate, said less deadly and more precise options than tank fire were available.

An official with knowledge of the attack said the tank wasn’t supposed to have been used, but was unable to say what the original plans were. The official spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The same brigade that carried out these strikes, the Golani Brigade, was involved in the March shooting of an ambulance convoy in southern Gaza that killed 15 Palestinian medics. An initial investigation of that attack by Israeli forces found a chain of “professional failures” and a deputy commander was fired.

Israel gave the names of six men who it said were militants killed in the attack.

It provided no evidence, and one man on its list, Omar Kamel Shahada Abu Teim, does not appear on the hospital’s list of casualties obtained by the AP. Doctors and morgue workers said no one by that name was killed, and unlike with the other five, Israel did not provide a picture.

Another person named, Jumaa al-Najjar, was a health care worker employed by Nasser Hospital, according to the morgue list. Another, Imad al-Shaer, was a driver for Gaza’s Civil Defense first responders.

The other three names appear on the casualty list, but no other details about them were immediately available.

The Health Ministry and the Civil Defense are part of the Hamas-run government. Israel has in the past claimed that some emergency responders were militants.

Based on analysis of the footage at the time of the attack, and speaking to multiple eyewitnesses, there is no evidence that anyone killed in the strikes was armed.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press reporters Melanie Lidman and Angela Charlton in Jerusalem, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, contributed.