Three journalists among five killed in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital

Five people have been killed in an Israeli strike on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, according to the Anglican Church, which operates it.

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem said three journalists, a father escorting his son to surgery, and another person died on Thursday morning when the hospital's compound was hit.

It condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the attack, which also injured 30 bystanders, including four hospital staff. The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate accused Israel of a "full-fledged war crime".

The Israeli military said it "precisely struck" a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighter operating from a command centre inside the hospital's yard.

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate said the Israeli strike on al-Ahli hospital's compound directly targeted a media tent.

Video footage showed medics and other people rushing to help casualties lying on the ground underneath a tree in a yard and carrying at least four of them into a medical tent.

"The Israeli drone suddenly attacked these colleagues," Palestinian journalist Mohammed Ahmed told the news agency Reuters at the scene. "Three of them [were] martyred, in addition to a number of martyrs among passersby."

"The Israeli occupation forces are increasing their attacks on us as journalists, trying to prevent us from doing our work," he alleged.

The journalists' syndicate identified the three dead journalists as Ismail Badah, a cameraman for the PIJ-affiliated Palestine Today TV channel, Soliman Hajaj, a Palestine Today editor, and Samir al-Refai of the Shams News network.

Another four journalists were injured, two of whom - Palestine Today correspondent Imad Daloul and Ahmed Qalja, a cameraman for Qatar-based Al-Araby TV - were in a critical condition, it said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it "precisely struck an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was operating in a command-and-control centre" in the yard of the hospital. It did not name the target or provide any evidence.

The military also accused armed groups of using al-Ahli for "terrorist activity" and "cynically and brutally using the civilian population" inside - an allegation it has denied.

In April, staff at al-Ahli hospital said an Israeli strike destroyed its laboratory and damaged its emergency room. They did not report any direct casualties, but said a child died due to disruption of care. The Israeli military said it hit a Hamas "command-and-control centre".

Hospitals are specially protected under international humanitarian law. They only lose that protection in certain circumstances, including being used as a base from which to launch an attack, as a weapons depot, or to hide healthy fighters.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 37 people across Gaza on Thursday. As well as Gaza City, local media reported deaths in Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the north, and in Khan Younis in the south.

Also on Thursday, a controversial US and Israeli-backed aid group working in Gaza said it had reopened two of its distribution centres, a day after closing them for "renovation".

"Over the past 24 hours, we have been fully focused on strengthening our distribution sites to ensure safe and more efficient delivery of life-saving aid to the people of Gaza," the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) interim executive director John Acree said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the GHF announced that it was shutting all of its sites - three out of four of which had been operational - to make them "as safe as possible" following a string of deadly incidents nearby.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in recent days while approaching one of the centres in Rafah on a route that runs through an Israeli military zone.

Witnesses have said Israeli forces opened fire at crowds seeking aid.

The Israeli military has denied that it fired at civilians within the centre, but it has said that troops fired at "suspects" who ignored warning shots and approached them.

The GHF has denied that anyone was killed or injured at its centres.

The group, which uses US private security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to Palestinians.

The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.

They also warn that Gaza's 2.1 million population faces catastrophic levels of hunger after an almost three-month total Israeli blockade that was partially eased two weeks ago.

The US and Israel say the GHF's system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing.

Separately, the Israeli military said it recovered the bodies of two Israeli-Americans taken back to Gaza as hostages during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,677 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.