Hamas has said that none of the 21 people killed in an Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital was a member of the Palestinian movement, after the Israeli military claimed it had targeted a Hamas surveillance camera and killed six fighters in its attack on the medical facility.
In a statement reported by the Reuters news agency on Wednesday, Hamas challenged the Israeli government’s account that claimed to name six fighters killed in the attack, which has drawn global condemnation for targeting journalists, medics, rescue workers and civilians.
Hamas said that at least two of the six Palestinians named by the Israeli military were not killed in the shocking double strike on the hospital, but at other times and locations, including one who was killed in al-Mawasi, some distance from the hospital in Khan Younis.
Earlier, the Israeli military claimed that its “initial investigation” into its own attack on the southern Gaza hospital showed that the target was a camera positioned in the area and used by Hamas to monitor Israeli troop movements.
“In light of this, the force acted to destroy the camera,” the Israeli army said.
At the moment of the initial Israeli strike on Monday, a Reuters news agency live video feed, which cameraman Hussam al-Masri had been operating, suddenly shut down. Al-Masri was killed in the attack.
Minutes later, a second strike was filmed live as it killed rescue workers and four more journalists who had run to the scene to help the victims of the initial Israeli strike.
The other four journalists killed in the attack were Ahmed Abu Aziz, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Mohammad Salama and Moaz Abu Taha.
The attack was a double-tap strike, in which Israeli forces bombed the facility, then waited for emergency responders and journalists to arrive on the scene, before bombing it a second time in order to maximise casualties.
Israel routinely justifies its deadly attacks on civilians across Gaza by saying it was targeting Hamas.
Human rights groups have accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes in its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, with a recent report finding that 83 percent of all those killed since Israel began its war on the enclave have been civilians.
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