Five journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in the vicinity of a hospital in central Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities and media reports.
The journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel were covering events near al-Awda Hospital, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, when their broadcasting van was hit by an Israeli air strike, Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reported early on Thursday morning.
The Al-Quds Today television channel, which is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group, said in a statement the strike hit a broadcast truck and killed its five staffers.
The channel said the group was killed “while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty.”
The deceased journalists have been named as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.
Ayman al-Jadi had been waiting for his wife in front of the hospital while she was in labour to give birth to their first child.
Civil defence teams retrieved the bodies of the victims and extinguished a fire at the scene, the Quds News Network said.
Israel’s military said it had carried out a “targeted” attack against a vehicle carrying members of Islamic Jihad and that it would continue to take action against “terrorist organizations” in Gaza.
“Before the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weapons, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information,” the military said in a post on X.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) earlier this month condemned Israel’s killing of four Palestinian journalists in the space of a week, calling on the international community to hold the country accountable for its attacks against the media.
At least 141 journalists have been killed in Israel’s war in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the CPJ.
