ISRAEL has killed five Palestinian journalists in an airstrike outside a hospital in a refugee camp in the Gaza strip, reports from the occupied territory say.
The strike, which Israel has claimed was targeted at militants, hit a bus outside the Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the territory.
The journalists had been working for the local Quds News Network, which also reported the strike.
On social media, Quds News said that Israel had targeted a "clearly marked press vehicle".
It named the killed journalists as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed Al-Ladah, Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, and Ayman Al-Jadi.
Five media workers lost their lives in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a bus for the press in front of Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, they are: Fadi Hassouna Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali Mohammed Al-Ladah Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan Ayman Al-Jadi pic.twitter.com/uy5DosZIcI
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 26, 2024
Another Gaza-based journalist, Motasem Ahmed Dalloul, reported that Al-Jadi had "been waiting for his first baby as his wife was in the hospital".
Israel claimed it targeted a group of fighters from Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza, except on military embeds.
Israel's renewed assault on Gaza began after Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in a surprise attack on nearby army bases and farming communities. They killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250.
Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half the fatalities have been women and children.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and driven around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes.
Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
International courts have found a "plausible" risk that Palestinians' right to be protected from genocide is being violated, while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted for arrest under suspicion of crimes against humanity.
Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories has also been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice, the UN's top court.
