UN Human Rights Office condemns targeting journalists and attacks on hospitals

06 June 2025

UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) condemns the Israeli military’s pattern of killings of journalists in Gaza, which remains the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist. In the latest attack on Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza City, in the morning on 5 June, at least 4 journalists were killed and 3 more were injured. This is at least the third instance of journalists apparently targeted and killed at hospitals. An attack on Nasr Medical Complex in Khan Younis on 7 April 2005 killed 2 journalists, and an attack on Al Awda Hospital in An Nuseirat killed 5 journalists on 26 December 2024.

UN Human Rights Office OPT is horrified that Israeli military attacks reportedly killed 18 journalists in May 2025 alone. The Office has verified the killing of 227 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including 197 men and 30 women. The apparent targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, combined with the denial by Israel of access of foreign journalists to Gaza for over 18 months, except a few visits controlled by IDF, appear to indicate a deliberate attempt by Israel to limit the flow of information to and from Gaza and prevent reporting on the impact of its attacks and denial of humanitarian assistance. Directing attacks against protected persons such as journalists is a violation of international humanitarian law and also constitutes a war crime.

The attack on Al Ahli Hospital on 5 June came as the Israeli military targeted hospitals that had barely recovered from previous rounds of hostilities. The Israeli military’s conduct of hostilities has pushed the health care system across Gaza to the verge of complete collapse. Operations in North Gaza have put three main hospitals in the governorate out of service, destroying the sole dialysis centre in the north. At the same time, the Israeli displacement orders and intense military operation in Khan Younis are preventing patients from reaching two of the main hospitals in Khan Younis – European and Al Amal Hospitals, and Israeli ground troops are advancing in the vicinity of Nasr Medical Complex – the largest hospital in the south, raising the risk of it also being of it also being forced out of service. Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah was struck three times in the morning on 4 June.

The coordinated, repeated and extensive attacks on hospitals, which are specially protected facilities under international humanitarian law, and the deprivation of health and medicate care to those in desperate need, further indicate a complete indifference towards civilian lives and suffering and raise concerns of an intentional disregard by Israel of its obligation to respect and protect civilians.