A camera was retrieved from the rubble. The images revealed the photographer’s final moments

The last photos taken by Mariam Abu Dagga show the damaged stairwell outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip, where she would be killed by an Israeli strike moments later.

Abu Dagga, a visual journalist who freelanced for the Associated Press, was among 22 people – including five reporters – who were killed on Monday when Israeli forces struck Nasser Hospital twice in quick succession, according to health officials.

The photos, retrieved from her camera on Wednesday, show people walking up the staircase after it was damaged in the first strike, while others look out the windows of the main health facility in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military said it targeted what it believed was a Hamas surveillance camera. Witnesses and health officials said the first strike killed a cameraman from the Reuters news agency doing a live television shot and a second person who was not named. A senior Hamas official denied that it was operating a camera at the hospital.

Abu Dagga, 33, and other reporters regularly based themselves at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis during the war. She documented the experiences of ordinary Palestinians who had been displaced from their homes, and doctors who treated wounded or malnourished children.

Algeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, his voice breaking and on the verge of tears, read a letter on Wednesday to the United Nations Security Council that Abu Dagga wrote days before she was killed.

It was addressed to her 13-year-old son, Ghaith, who left Gaza at the start of the war to live with his father in the United Arab Emirates.

Holding up a photo of Abu Dagga, Amar Bendjama called her “a young and beautiful mother” whose only weapon was a camera.

“Ghaith. You are the heart and soul of your mother,” Bendjama quoted Abu Dagga as writing. “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 Mariam after me.”

Meanwhile, Israeli and US officials met in Washington to discuss postwar Gaza, even as Israel’s military called the evacuation of Gaza City “inevitable” ahead of a new offensive and with no sign of a ceasefire in sight.

The meeting took place amid mounting outrage over the double Israeli strike on the Gaza hospital. The Israeli military, which has said it would investigate, offered no immediate explanation for striking twice and no evidence for an assertion that six of the dead were militants.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar at the State Department. Rubio grinned for the cameras as journalists shouted questions.

After the meeting, Saar was asked what the plan was for a Palestinian state, to which he replied there would not be any, Reuters reported.

Later on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump presided over a policy meeting on Israel’s war in Gaza and post-war plans for the Palestinian territory with input from former British prime minister Tony Blair and former Trump’s Middle East envoy Jared Kushner, a senior White House official said.

Trump, top White House officials, Blair and Kushner discussed the hostage crisis, plans to escalate food aid deliveries, post-war plans and more, the official told Reuters.

The official described the session as “simply a policy meeting,” the type frequently held by Trump and his team.

The Financial Times reported in July that the Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to develop a post-war Gaza plan. The think tank had said it “has had many calls with different groups on post-war reconstruction of Gaza but none have included the idea of forcible relocation of people from Gaza”.

As a growing chorus of international leaders urged Israel to reconsider its offensive and commit to talks, Pope Leo XIV called for Israel to halt the “collective punishment” and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.

Aid groups warn that an expanded Israeli military offensive could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory, where most of the more than 2 million residents have been displaced, neighbourhoods lie in ruins and a famine has been declared in Gaza City.

The Israeli military on Wednesday told residents of Gaza City to prepare to leave.

Spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on X that Israeli forces had surveyed vast empty areas south of the city “to assist the evacuating residents as much as possible”. He said the displaced would receive space for tents, and infrastructure would be set up to distribute aid and water.

More than 80 per cent of Gaza is designated as an Israeli military zone or subject to displacement orders, the UN humanitarian agency said in June.

Israel has pressed ahead with plans to mobilise tens of thousands of reservists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military will launch its offensive while simultaneously pursuing a ceasefire.

Hamas said last week that it accepted a ceasefire plan from Arab mediators.

Qatar, which has rarely assigned blame through more than a year of mediation, said Tuesday that Israel has yet to officially respond and “does not want to reach an agreement”. Last week, an official from Qatar said the proposal under discussion was “almost identical” to an earlier draft that Witkoff put forth and Israel accepted.

The deal would include a 60-day truce, the release of some of the 50 remaining hostages held by Hamas in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza and a road map toward talks on a lasting ceasefire.

Many in Netanyahu’s coalition government oppose such a phased deal. Meanwhile, protests have swelled in Israel as hostages’ families and their supporters press for a ceasefire. The government argues that a widened offensive is the best way to bring them home and cripple Hamas’ capacity to launch future attacks.

At least 39 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded on Wednesday across the Gaza Strip, the majority of whom died in Israeli strikes and gunfire, according to Gaza health officials.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes. Its offensive has killed nearly 63,000 Palestinians during the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says around half were women and children. The agency does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

The ministry said on Wednesday that 10 more people died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 313 people during the war, including 119 children.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Israeli offensive. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 remaining in Gaza, Israel believes around 20 are alive.

AP, Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.