By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel struck a media tent outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip early Monday, killing two people, including a local reporter, and wounding six other journalists, medics said. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a man whom it identified as a Hamas fighter posing as a journalist.
Thirty-two other people were killed in multiple strikes around Gaza, including 19 women and children and an emergency room doctor, according to hospital officials.
Video footage showed people carrying the body of a dead little girl, her face covered with blood, after one strike hit near a charity kitchen distributing hot meals for displaced people in tent camps outside the southern city of Khan Younis. Such kitchens have been drawing bigger crowds of Palestinians because other sources of food are running out, more than a month after Israeli cut off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people.
The World Food Program has warned that its food stocks to keep the kitchens going could run out by next week. It had to stop distributing packages of food staples directly to families last week because of a lack of supplies, spokesperson Abeer Etefa said Monday. All the bakeries it ran have also shut down, ending the main source of bread for hundreds of thousands of people.
Israel has carried out waves of strikes across Gaza, killing hundreds of people, and ground forces have carved out new military zones since it ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month. Israel says it is pressuring Hamas to free its remaining hostages, disarm and leave the territory. In doing so, it abandoned its prior agreement under the ceasefire to negotiate for the hostages’ release. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
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Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed by an Israeli airstrike, at the hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed by an Israeli airstrike, at the hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Strikes hit journalists and homes
The strike outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis about 2 a.m. set the media tent ablaze, killing Yousef al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine Today news website, and another man, according to hospital officials.
The military said the strike targeted Hassan Eslaiah, who it said was a Hamas fighter who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. Eslaiah was among six journalists who were wounded in the strike, according to the hospital.
Eslaiah had occasionally contributed images to The Associated Press and other international media outlets as a freelance journalist, including on Oct. 7. The AP has not worked with him for over a year.
Israel also struck tents on the edge of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, wounding three people, according to the hospital.
Thousands of people have sheltered in tents set up inside hospital compounds throughout the 18-month war, assuming Israel would be less likely to target them. Still, Israel has struck multiple hospitals and has carried out destructive raids on many, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, allegations denied by hospital staff.
A strike that hit a boulevard in Gaza City killed an emergency room doctor, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Israel’s campaign has killed more than 1,000 health workers and at least 173 journalists, according to the U.N. and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Other strikes overnight and into the day Monday reduced houses to rubble in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
Imad Maghari said the blast that hit his neighbors in Deir al-Balah at 2 a.m. was like “an earthquake,” followed by the screams of women and children. He said one neighbor lost five family members and another a young boy. “I don’t know what danger he poses. He’s 7 years old and was also killed,” Maghari said.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah said it received the bodies of 11 people, including at least three women and three children. Khan Youni’s Nasser Hospital reported 20 bodies, including eight women and five children.
Israel’s military offensive in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry, whose count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population. Israel says it tries to avoid civilian casualties and blames Hamas for their deaths because it operates among the population.
In the Oct. 7 attack, terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people. They are still holding 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that after Hamas is defeated, Israel will control security in Gaza and will implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle much of Gaza’s population to other countries through what the Israeli leader refers to as “voluntary emigration.”
Palestinians say they do not want to leave their homeland, and human rights experts have warned that implementing the Trump proposal would likely amount to mass expulsion in violation of international law.
Protests in Israel as Netanyahu meets Trump
Netanyahu will meet with Trump in Washington on Monday to discuss Gaza and other issues.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem to call for an agreement to release the captives. Many fear that Netanyahu’s decision to resume the fighting has put the remaining hostages in grave danger and hope Trump can help broker another deal.
“Now the moment of truth has come,” said Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander, addressing Netanyahu. “You are in the United States and you have to sit there with President Trump and close a deal so that everyone will be released home.”
Magdy reported from Cairo.
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