Israel has killed at least 19 people in an attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Al Jazeera reports.

According to the channel, five of the victims are journalists who had gone to the hospital's roof to report on the Gaza war.

Here people are fleeing the hospital attack

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TV crews and other media outlets are said to have gathered on the roof to report when Israel attacked. The five journalists killed are said, according to several media outlets, to be:

“We are devastated by the killing of Hossam al-Masri and the injury of another colleague, Hatem Khaled, in Israeli strikes,” a Reuters spokesperson said in a statement. Similar statements have also come from Al Jazeera and the AP.

Four healthcare workers have also been killed, writes Haaretz.

“The Israeli military attacked our teams today. The whole world witnessed this,” said a spokesperson for the emergency services in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Around fifty people, including both journalists and medical personnel, are reported to have been injured.

Regrets

The Hamas-run media agency in Gaza said two attacks were carried out on the building. The first reportedly hit the fourth floor of the hospital, and the second reportedly occurred when medical personnel arrived at the scene to help.

Nasser Hospital director Atef al-Hout tells the Al Araby website that the Israeli military attacked the surgical department at Nasser Hospital, which is southern Gaza's only operating healthcare facility.

– We were in the middle of operations when it happened. Several operations had to be paused.

Baraa Lafi, who previously worked for Aftonbladet and now reports for Sveriges Radio, was also injured in the attack on the hospital.

She was at the hospital to report on the first attack when it was attacked again.

The injuries are said to be minor, according to the radio.

It was not immediately clear what Israel's goal was in the attack.

The Israeli military has stated in a written statement that it regrets that “uninvolved individuals” were injured and that it does not specifically target journalists. It also states that an investigation has been set up.

Media workers must, under international law, be treated and protected in the same way as other civilians in war. An attacking military power must also exercise special care when it comes to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Unusually large number

Meanwhile, an unusually high number of journalists have been killed since October 7, when Israel launched its war following a Hamas terror attack. The Hamas-run media authority in Gaza states that a total of 244 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that at least 192 Palestinian journalists have been killed during the war, a figure higher than the total number of journalists killed worldwide in the past three years. CPJ has also reported that Israel is killing journalists in Gaza to prevent the outside world from seeing what is happening in Gaza.

Over 62,000 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed since the war began, and over 157,000 have been injured, according to local authorities.

Over 1,100 people were killed and more than 200 people were taken hostage in the Hamas attack on October 7.