The British newspaper The Guardian stated that the double attack launched by Israel on Nasser Hospital in Gaza, which resulted in the martyrdom of five journalists including employees from the Associated Press, Reuters, NBC, and Al Jazeera, represents a definitive potential violation of international law.

The attack targeted a civilian building, specifically a hospital, in a reckless double strike that killed civilians including rescue workers and journalists—groups that should be protected under international law.

While the Israeli occupation army, which has already killed about 200 journalists in the Gaza war, immediately tried to suggest that the killing of civilians was a mistake, the reality appears to be policy rather than error.

The newspaper added that each element alone—targeting an operating hospital, or journalists and rescue workers, or injured civilians already receiving treatment—is expected to raise accusations of war crimes by itself.

Together, this points to a darker matter, described as a “horrific” incident by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

Alongside the martyrdom of 20 people in the raids, 50 others were injured, according to the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, including patients who were already in critical condition.

Ghebreyesus said on X: “While Gaza’s population is starving, their already limited access to healthcare is being further crippled by repeated attacks.” He added: “We can only say this loudly: Stop attacks on healthcare. Cease fire now!”

The spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, explicitly linked the two matters, stating in a statement: “The killing of journalists in Gaza must shock the world—not silence it into stunned inaction, but move it to act, demanding accountability and justice. Journalists are not targets. Hospitals are not targets.”

The Guardian noted that Israel’s targeting of hospitals and medical staff, who have been killed, injured, and kidnapped, has been documented on multiple occasions. But the reckless double strike, where the Israeli occupation army attacks a site a second time as rescue workers and other civilians arrive, critics say, is an increasingly common tactic.