In the early hours of Tuesday, 13 May 2025, at least three civilians, including a well-known Palestinian journalist Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Eslayeh (Isleh), an elderly man, and a senior police official, were killed and at least 12 civilians were injured in a declared Israeli “precision strike” with an unknown munition that hit the Emergency Department on the third floor at the Nasser Medical Complex, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza strip.

At 3.10 a.m., the Palestinian Press Agency Safa News initially reported that there were “injured” from an Israeli drone strike on the Nasser Medical Complex west of Khan Younis. Shortly after, they reported that 37-year-old journalist Hassan Abdel Fattah Eslayeh (Abu al-Abd) was killed in the strike, and that “others were injured”, and further detailed that the strike hit the Burns Unit at the medical complex. The BBC reported that, according to eyewitnesses, the strike was described as “a drone attack on the hospital’s surgical wing”, which killed Eslayeh as well as “one other person, and injured a further 12” according to the aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Reuters News reported that “an Israeli airstrike” hit the third floor of the hospital where “dozens of patients and the injured were being treated”, according to witnesses from the Gaza civil emergency service. Reuters further detailed that, including Hassan Eslayeh, two patients had been killed, and “several others were wounded” according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Facebook user Tamer Fouat quoted a statement released by the Government Media Office in Gaza that confirmed the death of Hassan Eslayeh. Twitter/X user @ahmedhijazee noted that at the time of his death, Eslayeh was receiving treatment for injuries he sustained in a previous Israeli strike. Yarmouk News reported that at dawn, IDF drones hit the “third floor” of the medical complex, killing Eslayeh who was receiving treatment at the Burns Unit following injuries he sustained from a previous strike on in April 7, 2025  that hit a “journalists’ tent next to the same complex” (Airwars incident ISPT070425a, not yet assessed), which was corroborated by the BBC.

Facebook user Mohamed Awad stated that a “suicide drone” was used in the IDF strike that hit the Emergency Department, and that along with Hassan Eslayeh, the Head of the Hamas administration’s Counter-Terrorism service and member of the Gaza Police Command Council Colonel, 44-year-old Ahmed Abdel Ibrahim al-Qudra (Abu Abdullah) had been killed in the IDF strike, which was corroborated by Safa News and Quds News. Additionally, Mohamed Awad later posted that another civilian, 75-year-old Muhammad Nayef Mahmoud Baroud, had also died from the wounds he sustained during the strike.

The names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released a number of lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, names are matched to the ninth “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza”, which was released on June 23, 2025.

IDF Statement

In the evening, the IDF (Israeli military) posted a statement on its Telegram channel, accusing the deceased journalist of “operating under the guise of a journalist” while being a “terrorist in the Khan Younis brigade”. In particular, the statement said: “Overnight, the IDF and ISA conducted a precise strike that eliminated significant Hamas terrorists in the ‘Nasser’ hospital in Khan Younis. Among them was the terrorist Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih, who operated under the guise of a journalist and owner of a news network.  Aslih, a terrorist from the Hamas Khan Younis brigade, infiltrated Israel and participated in the October 7th massacre. During the massacre, he documented acts of looting, arson and murder, and uploaded the footage to the internet.” The post included a link to an image purporting to show Hassan “during the October 7th massacre”.

Multiple international media sources refuted this claim. The BBC emphasized that Hassan Eslayeh had “worked for years as a freelance photojournalist with both international and local news agencies. He was widely respected in Gaza for his extensive coverage of the conflict, often documenting events from the front lines. He [had] more than half a million followers on Instagram, where he document[ed] the war.” Reuters noted that Eslayeh “headed the Alam24 News outlet”, and “had previously worked with several Western news organizations.”

The Palestinian Information Center shared images of the Burns Unit rooms filled with wreckage and stated that the strike led to Eslayeh’s death as well as “the injury of other patients who were receiving treatment next to him.” Al Bawaba News reported that two people had been killed in the strike, which included Eslayeh, along with others wounded. Al-Araby TV corroborated this and noted that a “fire broke out” in the emergency room at the complex as a result of the strike, stating that it was a “deliberate assassination” of the journalist Hassan Eslayeh.

Al Jazeera and users on social media, including Twitter/X user Khaberni, shared harrowing, graphic footage of the rescue workers and colleagues of Hassan Eslayeh finding his lifeless body underneath the debris following the strike – screams and cries can be heard upon the discovery, with one of them crying out Hassan’s name and saying that they needed help to carry his body.

Social media tributes to Muhammad Nayef Baroud

Friends and relatives mourned the death of the elderly man, Muhammad Nayef Baroud. Facebook user Mohammed Abu Omar posted “Peace be upon you the day you were born, peace be upon you the day you departed, and peace be upon you the day you are raised alive to a paradise as wide as the heavens and the earth…My beloved, chosen uncle: Muhammad Nayef Baroud, a martyr”, sharing an image of Muhammad Baroud – an elderly man with a gentle smile and a kind countenance, with a beard, dressed in traditional garments and carrying a walking stick. Oum Yakob Nesma posted another image of Muhammad to Facebook, this time showing him smiling and smartly dressed in western formal attire, and noted that he had died from succumbing to injuries he sustained from the strike on the medical complex earlier in the day. Khatib Khalil expressed condolences to his friend and colleague, Muhammed’s son Ibrahim Baroud.

Social media tributes to Ahmed Abdel Ibrahim al-Qudra

Facebook user Mahmoud bin Youssef mourned Ahmed’s death, calling him “the beloved cousin”, and saying, “May God have mercy on you, beloved of hearts.” Facebook user Hamla Kaddour posted that Colonel Ahmed Abdel Ibrahim Al-Qudra (Abu Abdullah), the head of Counter-terrorism services, had been killed in the strike at the Nasser Medical Complex, noting that his brother had been killed in another incident two days prior. An image of Ahmed shows him in his uniform, a middle-aged man with a beard and glasses. Meem Magazine, Al-Arabiya News, Al-Yawm News, Al-Wasat Media, and other users on social media corroborated that the Colonel had been killed in the IDF “bombing” at Khan Younis. However, Facebook user Bee Bee stated that Ahmed was a Brigadier General and was the Director of Anti-Narcotics Police and a member of the Gaza Police Command Council. They additionally stated that he died from IDF “shooting” and “gunfire” in the early hours of the morning in Khan Younis, and shared an image of his lifeless body wrapped in shrouds, with a keffiyeh around his head.

Gaza has in recent years been run by Hamas as a political body, with leadership both inside and outside of Palestine, made up of a consultative Shura Council and a Politico Bureau (Politburo). Though designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and others, members of Hamas administrative bodies are not considered members of the militant wing of Hamas and do not directly participate in hostilities. Therefore, Airwars considers him a civilian until further information comes to light.

Social media tributes to Hassan Abdel Fattah Eslayeh

Twitter/X user @Pal_27KM posted a video tribute to the journalist Hassan, featuring his photos. According to the tribute, “Hassan was Gaza’s lens and the voice of its people, present everywhere and at every event. Gazans knew his face and features and memorized his name, which was spread in the flash images and coverage from the heart of the field. Many described him as a “mobile news agency”, and his official social media pages and channels were one of the primary sources of news.”

The report said further that Hassan was a young Palestinian journalist born in the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, in 1987. He was a father of four children. He began his media career at the end of 2009 and dedicated his efforts, time and life to being the voice of the street and the eye of the people and the media, a man close to his family and people. He worked as a freelance correspondent for a number of news agencies that terminated their contracts with him due to Israeli incitement campaigns, but he did not hesitate for a moment and continued to roam the Strip from north to south. Hassan, who was close to all his colleagues, was a steadfast man in the field who faced and defied threats, incitement campaigns, and attacks aimed at moral and physical assassination.

The journalist survived a direct assassination attempt on April 7th, when the Israeli military allegedly struck him and his colleagues in the journalists’ tent at Nasser Hospital, killing a number of them and injuring Abu al-Abd, as his colleagues called him, with burns and wounds that confined him to a hospital bed where he stayed until his assassination on  May 13, 2025.

Countless friends, relatives and colleagues of Hassan Eslayeh mourned his passing, and various organizations released statements in solidarity.

Palestinian journalist Azaiza Motaz posted that Israel “just killed my friend and colleague Hassan Eslayeh”, adding, “who doesn’t know Hassan? He is the kindest human you will ever meet, the local journalist that everyone loves and trusts.” He shared an image of them together, Eslayeh seen as a smiling young man with a beard.

Meem magazine shared a video of Eslayeh during his Hajj pilgrimage, where he is seen smiling and cheerful.

Facebook user Inshirah Sadouqa stated that while Eslayeh survived the previous strike, other journalists were killed, and called him “the most famous journalist in Gaza”, posting an image of Eslayeh being embraced by former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. TRT News quoted Eslayeh’s colleague Tareq S. Hajjaj, who referred to that image and stated, “The photo of Hassan with Sinwar was taken at an event Hassan was covering. Snapping a photo with the leader of a Palestinian faction in Gaza is commonplace, and something that anyone would do.”

Twitter/X user @MyPalestine0 posted that prior to his death, Eslayeh would say, “two hours after the burial, and no one remembers you”, and yet even 175 hours after his death, “people still remember him for his actions, stances, kindness, and professionalism. He was the voice of the people and the lens of the poor.” They added, “our martyrs are not numbers; our martyrs are the most honorable of people.”

Quds News posted a “farewell to our martyred colleague”, with an image of Eslayeh’s colleagues embracing his lifeless body.

Facebook user Bashar Hamdan posted that Eslayeh, “throughout his years of journalistic work… never tired or grew weary of conveying the truth.” He added that Eslayeh was “one of the stars of a documentary film, which I supervised the production of five years ago, about Facebook’s fight against Palestinian content.”

Twitter/X user @AnasAlSharif0, another renowned Palestinian journalist, shared an image of himself embracing his colleague Eslayeh, with the caption “With hearts filled with pain, and eyes that never stop crying, I announce to you the death of my colleague, brother, and friend, journalist [Hassan Eslayeh], who was martyred today. Hassan was not just a journalist, but he was the voice of the people and the image of their pain. We knew him through his lens that never left the field. We knew him through his insistence on documenting the massacres…Even when he was wounded, he did not stop performing his mission. Today we bid you farewell, Hassan, but you will remain in us, in our memory, in every scene you documented, and in every scream you conveyed to the world. Farewell, you who wrote the truth with your blood.”

User @YunusAbujarad called Eslayeh “a brave journalist and a symbol of giving”, and that everyone in Gaza “knew him from wire to wire, as the Gazans describe it – our borders are fenced with barbed wire”, adding “May God have mercy on you as a knight lying on the shoulders of your colleagues who loved you, the epitome of love and giving.”

Facebook user Al-Walid Ibn Al-Walid posted that Eslayeh was heroic, an icon of journalism, and a reliable source for news from Gaza, and was his dear friend. He noted that his last conversation with Eslayeh was just a few days ago, where he reassured Al-Walid about his health, “and that he was constantly improving.”

Writer and researcher Aziz H Almassri posted an extensive tribute to Eslayeh, saying that he was “a practical person, did not bargain or argue, shy and kind-hearted, a dynamo in journalistic work, a moving camera from the south of the Gaza Strip to its north…He was an example of a field journalist with a lead who respected the ethics of the profession…Whoever knew him closely saw a man with the heart of a young child.”

Aziz stated that “Throughout the months of the ongoing war…[Israeli] press websites incited against him and threatened to kill him. In a rare crime of its kind, for the press, even if it was an enemy press, to participate in inciting the killing of a journalist.” He additionally noted that Eslayeh “survived the first time when his house was bombed. He survived the second time and was injured. He was martyred in the third strike while receiving treatment in a medical hospital that is supposed to be sacred and holy according to international laws”, and ended with saying “a thousand mercies and light to your pure soul, Abu Al-Abd. May God forgive you and make your abode in heaven and give patience to your family and loved ones and protect all our people in all places of work and presence.” An image of Eslayeh posted by him shows a smiling, bearded young man dressed in a white, striped shirt.

Additionally, Al-Araby News released a digital investigation stating that shortly prior to and after the strike, a coordinated digital campaign was carried out against Hassan Eslayeh by Israeli social media accounts and media sources justifying the strike.

The Khan Younis Governorate Families Council, and various Palestinian factions, including the Popular Front and Hamas, released statements of condolences for Eslayeh’s death and condemnation over the incident, stating that the strike, which hit the Medical Complex and resulted in the death of a journalist, constituted a war crime.

More users and pages on social media mourned Eslayeh, stating among other things that he was someone “known for his simplicity and extreme closeness to the suffering of his people”, and that while he passed away “the scenes he documented with his lens and the tone of his voice as he broadcast the news of the Israeli war machine’s subjugation will remain immortal forever.” Other images circulated of him show him in his clearly marked press jacket and helmet, with his cameras, reporting from the field.

Images and videos of Eslayeh’s funeral shared by Al Jazeera, Reuters, and Quds News show a large mourning crowd that includes both his journalist colleagues and others carrying his body wrapped in shrouds and a Palestinian flag, with his press jacket on top. Quds News added the caption “The funeral of martyred journalist Hassan Eslayeh, who was assassinated by [IDF] forces at dawn today, began at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.” They also shared an image of Eslayeh prior to his death, receiving treatment at the hospital “after surviving” the previous strike – he is seen with wounds to his face and limbs.

Twitter/X page @EyeonPalestine shared a heartbreaking video of an elderly woman weeping and mourning the death of Hassan Eslayeh, she says that upon hearing about his death “Oh how my heart aches…I cried, I screamed, I died inside”, and that Eslayeh would always seek to help her, ease her burdens, and selflessly provide food and support whenever he could. She said that when she had heard of his survival during the earlier strike, she fell to the ground and kissed the floor in relief. She added, “Why is it always the good ones who go, Oh Allah?…Hassan was like a flower…He was my son…The one who showed mercy to the hearts of the poor is gone.”

Details of the strike and its aftermath

Al Jazeera quoted the MSF, which said that the incident “marked the second time in seven weeks the same building was targeted” and that “After the first attack seven weeks ago, we had to move our burn unit to a nearby building, where we now treat severe burns, trauma injuries and run two surgical theatres…Following today’s attack, outpatient consultations are suspended, and the number of our colleagues in the facility is reduced.”

Reuters reported heavy damage to the areas hit in the hospital, “including to the medical equipment and beds inside”, and quoted Atef Al-Hout, director of Nasser Hospital, who said “I came to the hospital not knowing whether to mourn the martyrs, treat the patients and injured, or deal with the staff who no longer feel safe.”

Twitter/X user @Hanzpal2 shared a video of the location of the strike within the Medical Complex – a large portion of the wall can be seen destroyed, with the rooms completely covered in wreckage and rubble, and the ceiling peppered with holes from the explosion. The video was posted with a caption stating that the strike involved a “suicide drone”, and the individual recording can be heard saying: “This is the destruction that befell the Nasser Medical Complex on the third floor as a result of a drone attack that led to the martyrdom of fellow journalist Hassan Salih. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs. The third floor was completely destroyed and put out of service.”

The Palestinian Information Center shared on Twitter/X a video of the wreckage along with the remnants of “a drone used by the” IDF in the strike. The individual recording can be heard saying, “Suicide planes targeted Nasser Medical Complex. We also notice the remains of this missile, which may have come from a warplane or a suicide plane. We do not know yet what remains of these missiles caused this destruction in this place.”

A video compilation posted by Al Jazeera showed large plumes of smoke arising from the hospital building, rescue efforts among the wreckage in the aftermath of the strike, the wounded being rushed for treatment on gurneys, and Hassan Eslayeh’s loved ones weeping and crying, clutching at his lifeless body. A member of Gaza’s Civil Defence team was interviewed, saying that among the injured in this strike were patients who had already been injured from previous incidents and have now sustained more severe wounds. He also added that the department, medical equipment, and patients were “unrecognizable”, and had to be pulled from the rubble.