(CNN) — The Israeli military has claimed its double strike on a Gaza hospital that killed health workers and journalists on Monday was targeting a camera positioned by Hamas, without providing evidence, as the United Nations condemned the attack and demanded “accountability and justice.”

Israel’s back-to-back strikes on the Nasser Hospital on Monday killed at least 20 people including health workers, journalists and emergency first responders – and prompted international outrage from press groups, medical organizations and national governments.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its initial inquiry found that troops from the Golani Brigade operating in Khan Younis had identified a camera “positioned by Hamas in the area of the Nasser Hospital that was being used to observe the activity of IDF troops, in order to direct terrorist activities against them.”

Israel provided no evidence that the camera was positioned by Hamas, nor did it explain why the first strike was followed by a second minutes later. The location is regularly used by reporters and news outlets for live streaming.

The Israeli military also claimed the strikes had killed six “terrorists.” It named those it claimed were militants but did not provide any further details.

Hamas has denied operating a camera at the hospital.

“If this claim were true, there are many means to neutralize this camera without targeting a health care facility with a tank shell,” Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told The Associated Press.

Among those killed were five journalists including Mohammad Salama, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, Hussam Al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, Mariam Abu Dagga, who has worked with The Associated Press and other outlets throughout the war, and freelance journalists Moath Abu Taha and Ahmed Abu Aziz.

A hospital spokesperson said four health workers had also been killed, and Gaza’s Civil Defense organization said one of its crew members was killed in the strike.

Global anger over the attack continues to deepen. On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Office condemned Israel’s military and demanded an independent investigation into the attack.

“The killing of journalists in Gaza should stop, should shock the world. Not into stunned silence, but into action, demanding accountability and justice,” said UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan. At least 247 Palestinian journalists had been killed since October 7, 2023, he added.

In a separate attack Monday, another journalist, Hassan Douhan, was killed by Israeli forces in Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, who said he “was shot by the occupation forces in his tent.”

Countries including Canada, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, the European Union, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait also condemned the strikes.

When asked for his reaction, US President Donald Trump said he had not heard about the strike, but that he was “not happy about it.”

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff later told Fox News that Trump is expected to hold a “large meeting” at the White House Wednesday on the war in Gaza.

Israel’s hospital claims disputed

A security source in Israel told CNN Tuesday that none of the five journalists killed in the strike were the intended targets. The Israeli attacks, however, hit a balcony on the hospital used by reporters for an elevated view of Khan Younis.

Reuters journalist Al-Masri was killed in the first Israeli strike while broadcasting a live video feed of the view across the city, Reuters reported.

?Hamas claimed the camera Israel said it targeted was operated by Al-Masri, without giving details.

For weeks, Reuters has broadcast a live signal from that location. Al-Masri’s byline is listed on the Reuters live signal page from the day of the attack.CNN reviewed a live feed from Monday from Khan Younis, where the hospital is located, that cuts around the time of the attack.

A second blast targeting the stairwell minutes later killed emergency workers and ambulance crews responding to the first attack. Reuters reported the four other journalists were killed in the second strike.

“There were journalists, patients, nurses, civil defense were on the stairs. We were directly targeted,” Reuters journalist Hatem Sadeq Omar, who was wounded and speaking from a hospital gurney, told CNN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called the deaths of journalists, medical staff and other civilians at the hospital a “tragic mishap” in a post on social media. The Israeli military’s Tuesday statement said it regretted “any harm caused to civilians.”

An Israeli security official previously told CNN that the forces involved in the strike were authorized to strike the camera with a drone, but fired two tank shells: the first at the camera and the second at rescue forces.

The IDF said it would “examine several gaps” in its understanding of the attack in further inquiries. This would include examining the “authorization process prior to the strike” and “the decision-making process in the field.”

“The Chief of the General Staff emphasized that the IDF directs its activities solely toward military targets,” the statement concluded.

The Israeli military has repeatedly bombed and raided hospitals and medical facilities since the start of the war, despite their protected status under international law, claiming Hamas was using the complexes for military purposes.

A ‘day of struggle’

The Israeli military’s claims about the attack were released on the same day protesters across the country took part in what was billed a nationwide “day of struggle” to call for a hostage and ceasefire deal.

Organizers of the largest rally, in Tel Aviv, estimated that more than 300,000 people attended.

CNN cannot independently confirm that number, but images from Tel Aviv showed the streets packed with flag-waving demonstrators.

Protesters who spoke to CNN on Tuesday were confident that they would eventually pressure Netanyahu’s government into accepting a deal.

“If we didn’t believe we could make a difference, we wouldn’t be here,” Yael Adar told CNN in downtown Tel Aviv. “We are the water drops that wear down the stone, and something will eventually happen because we’re fighting for our future.”

Adar’s son Tamir Adar died on October 7, with his body taken into Gaza.

Haim Weiss, a protester who traveled to downtown Tel Aviv from Beer Sheva in Israel’s south, told CNN’s Oren Liebermann that he believes Netanyahu’s cabinet is more interested in “conquering Gaza” than in securing a hostage deal and ceasefire.

“It’s unbelievable what the government is doing not to bring the hostages back,” Weiss, who protests three times a week, told CNN.

“This government should be dealing with one and only (one) thing: ending this war and bringing back the hostages,” Weiss said, adding that the war “brings a lot of suffering and death to the people of Gaza, to whom we are responsible as well.”

On Friday, the Britain’s Mirror newspaper published an open letter from 12 Holocaust survivors who called on Israel’s government to act “immediately and decisively” to prevent famine and protect civilians in Gaza.

“We support Israel’s right to defend its people. But that defense must not result in the slow death of Palestinian children from hunger,” the letter reportedly said.

While Netanyahu recently claimed he was “immediately” starting negotiations to release all the hostages and end the war, Israel is yet to respond to the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal from Qatari and Egyptian mediators, which Hamas has accepted.

That proposal calls for a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of half of the hostages – but Netanyahu is now insisting that all the hostages must be released at once. At the same time, he is advancing plans for the IDF’s massive assault and takeover of Gaza City.

Netanyahu’s security cabinet met on Tuesday, but sources told CNN the meeting ended without major decisions or any review of the current ceasefire deal. Another meeting on Sunday will review the government’s plan to occupy Gaza City.

Meanwhile, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the rally in Tel Aviv had sent “a clear message – the government must sign the deal that’s currently on the table,” it said in a statement.

“The entire nation demands an end to the war and the return of all hostages.”

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