The Israeli military said on Tuesday an initial inquiry into its strike on a Gaza hospital that killed five journalists determined that troops had identified a camera “positioned by Hamas” in the area to observe its forces.

Israel’s attack on the Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, in which at least 20 people were killed, was “completely unacceptable”, the EU Commission said on Tuesday.

“Civilians and journalists must be protected under international law,” commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said at a press briefing.

“Civilians in Gaza have been suffering for far too long and far too much, and it is time to break the cycle of violence.”

The Israeli attacks on Gaza continued overnight. At least 34 people were reported killed, including 18 people around Gaza City.

The double strikes on Monday killed the Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri; Mariam Abu Dagga, who worked for the Associated Press; the Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Salam; the photojournalist Moaz Abu Taha, and Ahmad Abu Aziz from Quds Feed. Another Reuters journalist, Hatem Khaled, was wounded in the attack.

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel deeply regretted what he called a “tragic mishap.”

On Monday, French president Emmanuel Macron said: “This is intolerable: civilians and journalists must be protected in all circumstances. The media must be able to carry out their mission freely and independently to cover the reality of the conflict.”

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric also criticised the attack on Monday, saying: “These latest horrific killings highlight the extreme risks that medical personnel and journalists face as they carry out their vital work amid this brutal conflict.”

Gaza City residents said Israeli aerial and tank shelling continued throughout the night and early on Tuesday in the eastern Gaza City suburbs of Sabra, Shejaia and Tuffah, as well as in Jabalia town to the north, destroying roads and houses.

“Earthquakes, we call it, they want to scare people to leave their homes,” said Ismail (40), a Gaza City resident.

The Israeli military has said its forces are operating in the area to locate weapons and destroy tunnels used by militants. Despite widespread protests at home and international condemnation, Israel is preparing to launch a new offensive in Gaza City, in what it describes as Hamas’s last bastion.

Elsewhere, Israelis held a day of nationwide protests in Israel calling for hostages to be released and the war in Gaza to end.

Israeli protesters blocked roads in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in the country, holding up pictures of hostages still held in Gaza and calling for the war to end.

“For 690 days, the government has been waging a war without a clear objective,” said Einav Zangauker, mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, in a statement with other hostage families who launched the so-called Day of Disruption.

“How will the hostages, the living and the fallen, be returned? Who will govern Gaza the day after? How do we rebuild our country?” she said.

Mr Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza and potential plans to reach a hostage release deal.

Mr Netanyahu’s office told The Times of Israel that the meeting will take place, but it did not clarify whether it will raise the ceasefire and phased hostage-release proposal that Hamas said it accepted last week.

About half of the enclave’s two million people currently live in Gaza City, with several thousand already moved westward, pouring into the heart of the city and along the coast.

Others have ventured further south to central Gaza and the coastal area of Al-Muwasi near Khan Younis.

The war began on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.

Israel’s military offensive against Hamas has since killed at least 62,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry; plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis; and internally displaced nearly its entire population. – Reuters