Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s Nasser hospital kill 15, including Reuters cameraman

At least 15 people, including three journalists, were killed on Monday following Israeli airstrikes on Nasser Hospital in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

Among the victims was Hussam al-Masri, a cameraman and contractor for Reuters. Another Reuters contractor, photographer Hatem Khaled, was reported wounded in the attack.

The strikes mark another devastating blow to Gaza, coming just days after the United Nations officially declared a famine in the territory the first such declaration ever made in the Middle East. Experts have warned that more than 500,000 people are facing catastrophic hunger as the humanitarian crisis deepens.

“It is a famine: the Gaza famine,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator. He blamed Israel, accusing it of “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Israel rejected the assessment, with its foreign ministry stating that the declaration that famine is now present in and around Gaza City was “based on Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested interests”. “There is no famine in Gaza,” it insisted.

The assessment was made by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors mandated by the UN to provide early warnings of food crises.

The IPC defines famine as occurring when 20 per cent of households face extreme food shortages, 30 per cent of children under five suffer acute malnutrition, and at least two in every 10,000 people die daily from starvation or related diseases.