Two Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in an Israeli air attack on Gaza's Shati refugee camp.
Reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi died on Wednesday when their car was struck in Gaza.
The incident occurred near the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who had been assassinated in Tehran earlier that day. Hamas has blamed Haniyeh’s death on Israel.
According to reports, the journalists were wearing press vests and driving a marked vehicle. They last spoke with their newsroom a quarter of an hour before the attack, alerting them to local shelling. They were travelling to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital when they were killed.
Speaking from the hospital where his colleagues’ bodies were taken, Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Anas al-Sharif said: “Ismail was conveying the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres committed by the [Israeli] occupation against the innocent people in Gaza.
“The feeling – no words can describe what happened.”
Israel has not yet commented. The country vehemently denies targeting journalists in its 10-month Gaza offensive, which has claimed over 39,000 lives, mostly women and children.
The reporters were last instructed to leave the area immediately after reporting a nearby house strike. They complied but were hit shortly after.
In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network called the killings a “targeted assassination” by Israeli forces and pledged to “pursue all legal avenues.”
“This latest attack on Al Jazeera journalists is part of a systematic targeting campaign against the network’s journalists and their families since October 2023,” the network said.
