US lawmakers slam Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital

WASHINGTON

US lawmakers strongly criticized Israel’s deadly strikes on the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza on Monday.

“Israel’s deliberate, horrific strikes on Nasser Hospital killed doctors, journalists, and rescue workers. A hospital should never be a war zone. The US cannot keep funding these war crimes,” Representative Nydia Velazquez wrote on the US social media company X’s platform.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, wrote on X that “Every American politician who has voted to arm the genocidal apartheid state has the blood of this massacre on their hands.”

At least 20 people, including journalists and a firefighter, were killed in the strike on the hospital in Khan Younis, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli army acknowledged the attack, saying it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals” and has launched an initial inquiry.

Palestinian officials and medics said the hospital’s fourth floor was hit twice, with the second strike targeting rescuers.

Among those killed were journalists Hussam al-Masri of Reuters, Mohammad Salama of Al Jazeera, Mariam Abu Dagga, a visual freelance journalist for The Associated Press, Moaz Abu Taha, Ahmed Abu Aziz and Hassan Douhan.

The latest deaths raised the number of journalists killed in Gaza since October 2023 to 246, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.