On August 25, 2025, tragedy struck the already battered Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, when Israeli missiles hit the facility twice in rapid succession, killing at least 22 people—including five journalists and multiple medical workers. Among the dead was Maryam Abu Daqqa, also known as Mariam Dagga, a 33-year-old photojournalist who had become a familiar face to many in Gaza and abroad through her reporting for Independent Arabia and her freelance work with The Associated Press.
The first missile landed around 10:10 a.m., slamming into the hospital’s fourth floor, an area housing surgical operating rooms and doctors’ residences. According to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of Gaza’s Health Ministry’s records department, the initial strike killed at least two people. But the horror didn’t stop there. As journalists and rescue workers—distinguished by their orange vests—scrambled up an external staircase to document the aftermath and help the wounded, a second missile hit the same spot, killing 17 more. The stairwell, often used by reporters for live TV spots and to catch a rare internet signal, became a scene of devastation.
Maryam Abu Daqqa’s final act was one of witness. Her camera, retrieved days later, revealed images of people ascending the now-infamous staircase, others peering anxiously from hospital windows, moments before the fatal second strike. According to Independent Arabia, Abu Daqqa spent the war chronicling the lives of displaced Palestinians and the daily struggles of doctors battling to save malnourished and wounded children. Her work, colleagues say, was driven by a deep sense of duty. “She lived the war, moving between destroyed homes, overcrowded hospitals, and displacement camps, documenting what Israel did not want to be documented,” recalled Ezz Al Din Abu Eisha, her colleague. “She saw herself as the world’s eye, witnessing the war in Gaza.”
The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out strikes in the area, stating that it believed it was targeting a Hamas surveillance camera. “Regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such,” the military said in a statement, promising an investigation into the incident. A senior Hamas official, however, denied that the group was operating any surveillance equipment at the hospital. The first strike reportedly killed a Reuters cameraman who was conducting a live television shot, according to health officials and witnesses cited by Independent Arabia.
This was not the first time Nasser Hospital had come under fire. Earlier strikes in March and June 2025 had killed several people, and the hospital has repeatedly faced critical shortages of supplies and staff. The facility, one of the few still functioning in southern Gaza, has been overwhelmed for months—patients with IV drips have lain on the floor in sweltering corridors, and the dead and wounded have continued to pour in as the conflict rages on.
For journalists, Gaza has become one of the deadliest places to work. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 192 journalists have been killed since the war began, making it one of the bloodiest conflicts for media workers in recent history. The United Nations adds that more than 1,500 health workers have also lost their lives. The war, which erupted on October 7, 2023, after a Hamas-led attack killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel, has since claimed at least 62,686 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and is considered the most reliable source on war casualties by the U.N. and independent experts, though Israel disputes its figures and has not released its own.
Outside the hospital, the violence continued. Al-Awda Hospital reported that Israeli gunfire killed six Palestinians seeking food aid near a distribution point in central Gaza, wounding 15 more. The shootings took place in the Netzarim Corridor, a military-controlled zone where U.N. convoys have been repeatedly overrun by desperate crowds, and where people have been killed trying to reach sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor. Neither the Israeli military nor the foundation responded to questions about the incident, which reportedly occurred hundreds of meters from the distribution point.
Meanwhile, in Gaza City, Shifa Hospital confirmed that three more Palestinians—including a child—were killed in a separate strike on a neighborhood. The relentless cycle of violence and scarcity has left the territory’s hospitals, already stretched to the brink, struggling to cope with the influx of the dead, wounded, and now, increasing numbers of malnourished children as famine tightens its grip on parts of Gaza.
The personal toll of the violence was brought into sharp relief at the United Nations on August 27, when Algeria’s ambassador, Amar Bendjama, read aloud a letter written by Maryam Abu Daqqa to her 13-year-old son, Gaith, who had left Gaza to live with his father in the United Arab Emirates at the start of the war. Fighting back tears, Bendjama called her “a young and beautiful mother” whose only weapon was a camera. He quoted her letter: “Ghaith. You are the heart and soul of your mother. When I die, I want you to pray for me, not to cry for me. I want you never, never to forget me. I did everything to keep you happy and safe and when you grow, when you marry, and when you have a daughter, name her Maryam after me.”
The strikes on Nasser Hospital have reignited debate over Israel’s military tactics and the safety of journalists and medical workers in conflict zones. Israel has repeatedly asserted that Hamas embeds itself within medical facilities, but has provided little evidence to support these claims. For many Palestinians, the attacks on hospitals and aid seekers are further evidence of indiscriminate violence. “It leaves me in another state of shock that hospitals can be a target,” said a British doctor working at Nasser Hospital, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. “You go to work as a healthcare professional and you should be protected in the place you work. But you are not.”
As Israeli forces prepare for a new offensive into Gaza City—home to hundreds of thousands, many already displaced—the anxiety among families, aid workers, and journalists is palpable. The families of the 50 remaining hostages still held in Gaza, with around 20 believed to be alive, fear that renewed fighting will put their loved ones at even greater risk. Calls are growing within Israel for a deal to end the conflict and bring everyone home, while the recent call-up of reservists has only heightened tensions.
In the end, the legacy of Maryam Abu Daqqa and her colleagues is one of courage and witness. Their work, often undertaken at immense personal risk, has ensured that the world continues to see and understand the human cost of the war in Gaza—even as the bombs keep falling and the suffering mounts.