AP journalist’s last pics present spot the place she was killed by IDF at Nasser Hospital

[ad_1] The final photographs taken by Mariam Dagga present the broken stairwell outdoors a hospital within the Gaza Strip the place she could be killed moments later by an Israeli strike .

Dagga, a visible journalist who freelanced for The Related Press, was amongst 22 folks, together with 5 reporters, killed Monday when Israeli forces struck Nasser Hospital twice in fast succession, in response to well being officers.

The photographs, retrieved from her digicam on Wednesday, present folks strolling up the staircase after it was broken within the first strike whereas others look out the home windows of the hospital, the principle well being facility in southern Gaza.

The navy said it focused what it believed was a Hamas surveillance digicam, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace stated in a press release on Monday that Israel “deeply regrets” the assault, calling it a “tragic mishap.”

Dagga, 33, and different reporters usually based mostly themselves at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis through the conflict.

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By signing up, you conform to the terms She documented the experiences of strange Palestinians who had been displaced from their houses, and docs who handled wounded or malnourished kids.

Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with the Related Press and different shops through the Gaza conflict, poses for a portrait in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on June 14, 2024. She was amongst at the least 19 folks, together with 4 journalists, killed Monday in alleged Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. (AP Photograph / Jehad Alshrafi)

Algeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, his voice breaking and on the verge of tears, learn a letter Wednesday to the UN Safety Council that Dagga wrote days earlier than she was killed.

It was addressed to her 13-year-old son, Gaith, who left Gaza at first of the conflict to dwell along with his father within the United Arab Emirates.

Holding up a photograph of Dagga, Amar Bendjama referred to as her “a younger and delightful mom” whose solely weapon was a digicam.

Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with The Related Press and different shops through the Gaza conflict, takes a selfie surrounded by kids at a college used to shelter displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 31, 2023. Dagga was one among a number of journalists killed, together with different folks, in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on August 25, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jehad Alshrafi)

“Ghaith. You're the coronary heart and soul of your mom,” Bendjama quoted Dagga as writing. “Once I die, I would like you to hope for me, to not cry for me.”

“I would like you by no means, by no means to neglect me. I did all the pieces to maintain you content and secure and while you develop, while you marry, and when you've gotten a daughter, identify her Mariam after me.”

A journalist holds a blood-covered digicam belonging to Palestinian photojournalist Mariam Dagga, a journalist who freelanced for AP who was killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip, throughout her funeral on August 25, 2025. (AFP)

Alongside Dagga, the Israeli strikes killed Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, Al Jazeera contributor Mohammed Salama, and native reporter Moaz Abu Taha, in addition to some 20 others, in response to the Hamas-run well being ministry, whose figures can't be verified and don't distinguish between combatants and civilians.

An Israeli navy spokesperson stated Tuesday that the Reuters and Related Press journalists killed within the assault weren't “a goal of the strike.”

“We are able to verify that the Reuters and AP journalists weren't a goal of the strike,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani informed Reuters.

A view reveals the fourth flooring of Nasser Hospital broken after an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on August 25, 2025. Twenty Palestinians, together with 5 journalists and a firefighter, had been reported killed within the assault. (Photograph by AFP)

In response to an preliminary IDF probe of the incident, the troops had been concentrating on a surveillance digicam on the hospital grounds that it stated was put in by Hamas to trace Israeli actions within the space.

The IDF additionally claimed that six of the greater than 20 folks killed had been terror operatives, together with one who took half within the October 7, 2023, bloodbath in southern Israel.

The IDF reiterated that it regrets civilian casualties and doesn't goal journalists, whereas accusing Hamas of “cynically” exploiting medical services for navy functions.

Following the preliminary investigation’s findings, IDF Chief of Employees Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered the probe expanded to scrutinize the approval course of for the strike, together with the timing of the assault, the kind of munitions used, and the chain of decision-making on the bottom.

An IDF infographic particulars the identities of six Palestinian terror operatives the navy says had been killed in an assault on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on August 25, 2025. (Israel Protection Forces)

Hamas, in the meantime, denied that any of the Palestinians killed within the assault had been terror operatives, and stated that Israel “tried to justify this crime by fabricating a false declare that it had focused a ‘digicam’ belonging to resistance components — an allegation that's baseless, missing any proof, and merely aimed toward evading authorized and ethical accountability for a full-fledged bloodbath.”

The assault drew widespread worldwide condemnation. The European Union’s diplomatic arm referred to as it “utterly unacceptable,” urging Israel to guard civilians and journalists below worldwide regulation. “There have been too many fatalities on this battle,” the EU’s Exterior Motion Service stated.

A person reacts as he holds the gear utilized by Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, on the web site the place he was killed together with different journalists and folks in alleged Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip, on this nonetheless picture taken from a video shot by Reuters contractor Hatem Khaled, who was wounded shortly afterwards in one other strike whereas he was filming the location, August 25, 2025. (REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)

The International Press Affiliation additionally condemned the strike, saying the shells “hit the outside staircase of the hospital the place journalists often stationed themselves with their cameras,” and that they “got here with no warning.”

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate stated the strikes represented “an open conflict towards free media, with the goal of terrorizing journalists and stopping them from fulfilling their skilled obligation of exposing its crimes to the world.”

In response to the group, greater than 240 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli hearth in Gaza because the conflict began on October 7, 2023.

Israel, which says it has no coverage of concentrating on journalists, has asserted that a few of the journalists killed all through the conflict had been in truth combatants. In some circumstances, the navy has offered documentation seized from terror teams in Gaza that checklist the journalists as fighters.

Mourners carry the physique of one among 5 journalists killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis within the southern Gaza Strip, throughout their funeral on August 25, 2025. (Photograph by AFP)

Hospitals have repeatedly grow to be battlegrounds within the Gaza conflict, with Israel accusing Hamas of utilizing them to shelter fighters, maintain hostages, and conceal navy infrastructure.

Hamas has previously held hostages at Nasser Hospital, in response to the IDF and testimony from quite a few ex-hostages. Shifa Hospital, within the north of the Strip, was additionally utilized by Hamas to carry some hostages and as a command-and-control middle early within the conflict, and was the location of fierce battles between Hamas fighters and IDF troops.

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