ISRAEL attacked southern Gaza’s main hospital with a double missile strike today, killing at least 20 people including five journalists, medical officials said.

The first attack hit the top floor of one of the buildings at Nasser Hospital, where surgical operating rooms and doctors’ residences are located, killing at least two people, said Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry’s records department.

Minutes later, as journalists and rescue workers in orange vests rushed up an external stairwell to the scene, video footage circulating on social media captured the moment a second missile hit.

The strike on the stairwell killed 18 others, including medical teams, rescuers, journalists and others rushing upstairs, said Mr Waheidi.

Journalists often used the staircase, which ran up the outside of the building, as a location for live TV spots and to pick up an internet signal.

The five journalists killed were Hossam al-Masri, a photographer working for Reuters news agency; Mohammed Salama, a photojournalist working for Al Jazeera; Maryam Abu Deqa, a journalist working for several media outlets such as Associated Press and Independent Arabia; Moaz Abu Taha, a journalist working for NBC news and journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz.

Photographer Hatem Khaled, a Reuters contractor, was wounded in the attack, hospital officials said.

The Foreign Press Association has called for an “immediate explanation” of the killings from the Israeli military and PM’s office.

“This is among the deadliest Israeli attacks on journalists working for international media since the Gaza war began,” the organisation said in a statement.

Israel has now killed 222 journalists and media workers since it launched its brutal war on the Palestinians in Gaza.

In a joint statement the International Federation of Journalists and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the killings of the journalists and called “for an immediate investigation into their deaths.”

United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said: “Scenes like this unfold every moment in Gaza, often unseen, largely undocumented. I beg states: how much more must be witnessed before you act to stop this carnage?

Ms Albanese called for the Israel-imposed blockade to be broken, an arms embargo and for sanctions to be slapped on Israel.

A British doctor who was working on the floor that was hit said the second strike hit before people could start evacuating from the first.

“Just absolute scenes of chaos, disbelief, and fear,” the doctor said. People wounded from the strikes — either directly caught in the blast or hit by debris — entered the ward, leaving trails of blood. Stretchers rushed past visitors searching for loved ones.

“It leaves me in another state of shock that hospitals can be a target,” the doctor said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals from Israeli authorities. “I really fear for my colleagues and patients who are left behind at Nasser today.”

Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, the largest in southern Gaza, has withstood raids and bombardment during 22 months of war.

Israel’s military said that it would conduct an investigation into the incident and that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists.”

The attack on Nasser was the latest in multiple Israeli attacks on hospitals throughout the war.

Since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7 2023, Israeli forces have struck healthcare facilities and personnel in Gaza about 1,900 times, killing hundreds of patients and healthcare workers.

The United Nations says more than 1,500 health workers have been killed by Israeli military action.

The World Health Organisation says that about 94 per cent of hospitals in Gaza have been either damaged or completely destroyed. All have been starved of basic medical supplies, electricity and clean water.

Israel claims its attacks have targeted militants operating inside the medical facilities, without providing evidence.

Hospitals are covered by the 1949 Geneva Conventions, signed by Israel and the United States and says the cover is only lost if hospitals are used to commit “acts harmful to the enemy.”

In addition to those killed at Nasser Hospital, hospital officials in northern Gaza also reported deaths from strikes and gunfire along the route to aid sites.

Three Palestinians, including a child, were killed in Israeli attack on a neighbourhood in Gaza City, where Israel is preparing for a broader ground invasion in the coming days, Shifa Hospital said.

Al-Awda Hospital reported six aid-seekers trying to reach a distribution point in central Gaza were killed by Israeli gunfire in an incident that also wounded 15.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a question about the latest killing of aid seekers.

As the death toll mounted Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said today that the army’s actions in Gaza have created the conditions for a prisoner exchange deal and urged the government to accept the current US-backed “Witkoff framework.”

Speaking at the Haifa naval base, Mr Zamir reportedly told colleagues that “now it’s in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hands,” warning that pressing deeper into Gaza City would endanger the captives’ lives.

While Hamas has signalled approval of a phased-release plan, senior Israeli officials say that proposal is no longer relevant.

Mr Netanyahu is expected to convene the security cabinet this week to decide on the next round of negotiations, though the location and composition of the talks remain undecided.

The health ministry said on Sunday that at least 62,686 Palestinians have been killed in the war. It does not distinguish between fighters and civilians but says around half have been women and children.

The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not suggested alternative figures.

Protests in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and to put pressure on Israel to agree a ceasefire took place across the globe on Sunday, including in Malaysia, Kenya, Belgium and Senegal.

Huge demonstrations also took place on Saturday in Sweden and Britain.

A mass rally held in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Sunday saw thousands of people demonstrate, answering a call by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who said the demonstration would act as a starting point to form a group of activists to take humanitarian aid to Gaza later this month.

In Senegal’s capital Dakar, demonstrators condemned Israeli attacks in Gaza, and called for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the famine-struck enclave.

In Nairobi, hundreds of bikers rallied, chanting: “Free Palestine.” Many slammed the international community for its inability to stop Israel’s deadly assault.