Nasser Hospital Double-Tap Strike: 22 Killed Including First Responders

On August 25, 2025, Israeli forces carried out multiple strikes on the stairwell area of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. CNN's analysis documented three separate strikes on the same location within a short time window. The pattern — striking a location and then striking again as rescuers arrive to help the injured — is known as a "double-tap" strike and is considered a war crime under international humanitarian law when deliberately targeting civilians and first responders.

Twenty-two people were killed in the strikes, including first responders who had arrived to assist victims of the initial strike. Five journalists were among those killed, working with Reuters, The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye, along with health workers and a Civil Defense crew member (CPJ). The UN Human Rights Office condemned the attack and called for an independent investigation. Prime Minister Netanyahu called the deaths a "tragic mishap." An initial IDF probe said troops had targeted a camera it alleged Hamas was using to observe forces, and named six people it said were militants killed — none of them the journalists; the IDF did not explain the follow-up strike, and the chief of staff ordered further inquiry into the munitions used (Jewish News; CPJ).

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is the largest functioning hospital in southern Gaza. It has been the site of multiple incidents throughout the conflict; Israeli forces conducted a raid on the facility in February 2024, claiming Hamas used tunnels beneath and around the complex. The IDF has said Hamas embeds military infrastructure within and around civilian and medical facilities.

International humanitarian law (the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols) prohibits attacks on medical facilities unless they are being used for acts "harmful to the enemy" and after a warning has been given and disregarded. The question of whether the double-tap pattern — targeting the same location again as rescuers arrive — is consistent with that standard has been the subject of international legal scrutiny throughout the conflict.