A total of 22 civilians were killed by Israeli missile strikes on the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday 25 August 2025.
Those massacred included five journalists, three hospital staff, one doctor, a civil defense worker, and one child, 14-year-old Rayan Omar Mahmoud Abu Omar. More than fifty others were injured as a result of missile strikes carried out with full knowledge of the civilian presence.
This latest atrocity by Israeli forces has attracted widespread anger and international condemnation.
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have subsequently lodged a complaint with the International Criminal Court, exposing the full chain of command behind the massacre.1
Their investigation proves that the Golani Brigade engineered and coordinated the attack under continuous drone surveillance, the 188th Armored Brigade executed it with guided missiles, and senior commanders up to Prime Minister Netanyahu authorised and enabled it. This massacre was not the result of crossfire, but rather a deliberate act of killing with genocidal intent.
The HRF and PCHR report also states that the massacre at Nasser hospital was not an isolated event but part of a wider pattern.2
The World Health Organization has reported 735 attacks on health care in Gaza from 7 October 2023 to 11 June 2025, that have killed 917 persons and injured 1411, affected 125 health facilities, and damaged 34 hospitals.3
Also since October 2023, more than 270 journalists have been killed in Gaza, making it the deadliest conflict for media workers in modern history.4
This systematic targeting of both healthcare and the press demonstrates a dual strategy: to deprive Palestinians of survival and to erase the evidence of their suffering. Such acts are consistent with a genocidal policy.5
The Nasser hospital massacre constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute, including willful killing, deliberate attacks on a hospital, and disproportionate harm.
It also constitutes genocide, as it involves the intentional killing of members of a protected group and the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to destroy that group in whole or in part.
Notes
1. The Hind Rajab Foundation is devoted to breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and honoring the memory of Hind Rajab and all those who have perished in the Gaza genocide. The goals of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights include supporting all efforts aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights in regard to self-determination and independence in accordance with international law and UN resolutions.
2. The Hind Rajab Foundation, ‘HRF and PCHR File ICC Complaint on the Nasser Hospital Massacre: Exposing the Command Chain Behind the Killing of 22 Civilians’, Aug 31, 2025.
3. Also refer to Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), ‘UN experts appalled by relentless Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system’, Press Release, Aug 13, 2025.
4. Over 150 media outlets from over 50 countries are preparing for a major media campaign on 1 September, coordinated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the global campaigning movement Avaaz. Read more about this media campaign here.
5. More evidence of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza’s health system and the treatment of its doctors and medical staff can be seen in the latest Four Corners program entitled Gaza: Doctors Under Attack.