The IDF claims the attack targeted members of an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell
Five Palestinian journalists were killed in an overnight Israeli strike near a hospital in central Gaza, their news outlet, Palestinian TV channel Al-Quds Today, said in a statement on X on Thursday. According to the network, the reporters were covering events near Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp when their van was hit by an Israeli missile.
According to a report from Al Jazeera citing witnesses, when the strike hit, the journalists were sleeping in a van in front of the hospital as the wife of one of the deceased, Ayman al-Jadi, was giving birth to their first child inside.
Images posted online show the vehicle clearly marked with the words ‘press’ and ‘TV’ in large red letters visible on the back doors of the vehicle. Further footage from the scene circulating on X shows the van engulfed in flames.
Al-Quds Today condemned the attack and said its five employees were killed “while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty.”
Civil defense teams managed to retrieve the victims and extinguish a fire that broke out after the Israeli warplanes bombed a press vehicle belonging to Al-Quds Today channel in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, killing five journalists. pic.twitter.com/fvgTpma096
The Israeli military has confirmed it carried out the strike, but claimed it targeted a vehicle carrying terrorists, and that the strike was “precise,” based on aerial surveillance and “additional intelligence.”
“Overnight, with the direction of IDF intelligence, the IAF conducted a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat,” it stated in a post on Telegram. The IDF did not provide evidence to support the claim.
An International Federation of Journalists survey released earlier this month estimated that at least 55 journalists were killed in Gaza this year alone, more than half of the global total of 104. According to the tally from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based non-profit, at least 141 journalists have been killed in the region since the war broke out in October last year.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a surprise attack on Israeli cities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting over 250, with around 100 hostages believed to be remaining in captivity to date. Israel launched its operation in Gaza aiming to eliminate Hamas shortly afterwards, and has insisted that it will continue until all hostages are rescued and the threats to the Jewish state from Hamas and allied groups are eliminated.
According to UN figures, more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since the war broke out. The international body has repeatedly warned about the dire humanitarian situation in the densely populated area, which is becoming even worse as the temperature drops. According to the latest report from Al Jazeera, at least three infants have died from hypothermia in a displacement camp in southern Gaza within the past few days.
