A hospital in Gaza that was hit in an Israeli strike, killing 20 people including five journalists, has rejected the Israeli military’s claim it struck the facility because it was targeting what it believed was a Hamas surveillance camera as well as people identified as militants.

The statement was part of the military’s initial inquiry into the attack on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a “tragic mishap”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the back-to-back strikes on the largest hospital in southern Gaza were ordered because soldiers believed militants were using the camera to observe Israeli forces.

It also said it was because Israel has long believed Hamas and other militant groups are present at hospitals – though Israeli officials have rarely provided evidence to support such claims.

“This conclusion was further supported, among other reasons, by the documented military use of hospitals by the terrorist organisations throughout the war,” the IDF claimed.

It said six of those killed in the strike were “terrorists”.

The military chief of general staff acknowledged several “gaps” in the investigation so far, including the kind of ammunition used to take out the camera.

The military also said there is an ongoing investigation into the chain of command that approved the strike.

However, the army added: “The chief of the general staff emphasised that the IDF directs its activities solely toward military targets.”

In a statement, the hospital said: “Nasser hospital categorically reject these claims and any claims made by Israeli authorities to justify attacks on hospital premises.”

Among those killed was 33-year-old Mariam Dagga, a journalist who worked for the Associated Press, Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammed Salama, Reuters contractor Hussam al Masri, Reuters photographer Moaz Abu Taha and Middle East Eye freelancer Ahmed Abu Aziz.

The IDF said journalists working for Reuters and the Associated Press “were not a target of the strike”.

Read more: Who are the journalists killed in the attack?

The strikes have been condemned by international leaders and human rights groups.

“The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world,” said United Nations Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan.

“Not into stunned silence but into action, demanding accountability and justice.”

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The attack was described as a “double-tap” attack, which sees civilians or medical workers rushing to help those injured hit in a second strike. They have previously been seen in the wars in Ukraine and Syria.

Hospitals have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces throughout the 22-month war in Gaza.

The war began on 7 October 2023 when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.

Israel’s military offensive against Hamas has killed at least 62,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its count but says the majority are women and children.

Nadav is tired, frustrated and haunted, yet he smiles when we meet. For 690 days, he has been waiting for the world to change, and he’s still waiting, and hoping.

Back on 7 October 2023, his father Tal was seized by Hamas and taken to Gaza. Tal is now dead – it’s not clear when he died, but the simple, brutal fact of his death is not in doubt.

What is unknown – indeed, what cannot be known – is when Tal’s body will be returned to Israel.

“My dad is still being held captive, although he is not alive. My life is stuck,” Nadav tells me. “In order to continue living and start the healing process, we need them home and we need the war to be over.”

Around him, banners, signs and the sounds of another day of national protest. Motorways were brought to a halt, huge numbers of people went on strike, all in the name of demanding that the Israeli government do more to prioritise the return of all the hostages.

In Nadav’s mind, that means searching for compromise and negotiating a ceasefire that ends the war and allows for the return of all the hostages – believed to number 20 who are still alive, and a further 30 who have died.

“We have seen that just using military strength is not enough,” he says. “We now have to do whatever it takes, even if it’s not perfect.”

“Even if that means negotiating with Hamas?” I ask. He nods. “This war has to come to an end.”

It is a theme we hear again and again. In the crowds that pour into Hostages Square, there is almost unanimity.

“The prime minister is acting like a tyrant,” declares one man as he marches down the street. “He doesn’t listen to us – his subjects. He just listens to the people in his cabinet who think that war is always the answer.”

Around us, we regularly see people wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Stam Wars”, written in the familiar Star Wars style.

It is a biting comment dressed up as a joke – stam is a derogatory slang word, basically meaning pointless. “Our soldiers are being sacrificed,” says Yoram, as he strolls down the road towards the square.

This, of course, is no random sample. Among the crowd are many who viscerally dislike Benjamin Netanyahu, and the truth is that his supporters would be unlikely to join this crowd.

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And yet they all want the same thing. The prime minister insists that the return of the hostages is his driving motivation, just as the people we spoke to told us that getting back the hostages was their ambition.

The difference is that Netanyahu seems unwilling to negotiate, and is convinced that the way to push Hamas into submission is to attack them relentlessly. Those on the protest, including relatives and loved ones of the hostages, are calling for talks to be placed ahead of tanks.

Is Netanyahu worried? Probably not. Just as the protesters were gathering in Hostages Square, Israel’s security cabinet was meeting to discuss the future of the war. Plans to encircle and occupy Gaza City were discussed. Proposals for a ceasefire were, apparently, not even mentioned.

Ukrainians say they are in danger of losing the drone arms race with Russia and need more help.

And that is worrying not just for Ukraine, because the drone is becoming the likely weapon of choice in other future conflicts.

Sky News has been given exclusive access to a Ukrainian drone factory to watch its start up ingenuity at work. Ukrainians have turned the drone into their most effective weapon against the invaders.

But they are now, we are told, losing the upper hand in the skies over Ukraine.

General Cherry Drones was started by volunteers at the beginning of the war, making a 100 a month, but is now producing 1,000 times that. The company’s Andriy Lavrenovych said it is never enough.

“The Russians have a lot of troops, a lot of vehicles and our soldiers every day tell us we need more, we need more weapons, we need better, we need faster, we need higher.”

The comments echo the words of Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who told reporters this week “the Russians have increased the number of drones, while due to a lack of funding, we have not yet been able to scale up.”

The factory’s location is a closely-guarded secret, moved often. Russia strikes weapons factories when it can.

In a nondescript office building we watched drones being assembled and stacked in their thousands. Put together like toys, they are hand assembled and customised.

The quadcopters vary in size, some carry explosives to attack the enemy. Others fly as high as six kilometres to ambush Russian surveillance drones.

A $1,000 (£743) Ukrainian drone can bring down an enemy aircraft worth 300 times as much.

Downstairs each drone is tested before it’s sent to the front. Nineteen-year-old Dima – not his real name – used to play with drones at home before it was occupied in Kherson Oblast.

Now he works here using his skills to check the drones are fit for battle.

But Russia is catching up. Sinister propaganda released this week filmed at one of its vast new drone factories shows hundreds of Geranium delta wing attack drones lined up ready to be launched at Ukraine.

Russia has refined the technology provided by Iranians to produce faster, more lethal versions of their Shahed drones. They have wreaked havoc and carnage, coming in their hundreds every night and killing scores of civilians. Ukraine expects 1,000 a night in the months ahead.

Russia is using scale and quantity to turn the tables on Ukrainians. And it is mastering drones controlled by fibre optic thread, trailing in their wake, that cannot be jammed.

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Oleksandr “Drakar”, head of new product development, showed us his company’s prototype fibre optic model. It is more effective than the Russians, he told us, but added: “The Russians began using the technology earlier and have scaled up production.

“They’ve had considerable help from the Chinese – entire factories there are under contract to supply fibre exclusively to Russia, producing it in vast quantities.”

Russia’s Chinese allies, who claim to be neutral in this conflict, are also throttling the supply of microchips and other parts vital to drone production. The West is not doing enough, say Ukrainians, to counterbalance the threat.

It is a constant race to beat the other side, innovation met by more innovation. This conflict is revolutionising warfare into a sci-fi battle of machines.

Ukrainians say 80% of battlefield strikes are now carried out by drones.

Whoever has the upper hand with them in this conflict is likely to have the edge in future wars. If the West wants to be on the winning side, it will need to give Zelenskyy and his drone start-up companies more help to maintain their edge.