Gaza medics say Israeli strike kills five journalists, Israel says it hit militants

CAIRO/GAZA —Gaza authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinian journalists in a vehicle outside a hospital on Thursday but the Israeli army said the victims were Islamic Jihad militants posing as media workers.

Medics said the five were among at least 31 people killed in Israeli air assaults across the Palestinian enclave before dawn as Hamas and Israel traded blame over delays in reaching a ceasefire deal after more than 14 months of fighting.

The Palestinian Journalists Union said one strike killed five journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel who were in a broadcast vehicle in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The union said more than 190 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began in October 2023.

The Gaza-based channel called the strike a massacre and said in a statement on Telegram the five "were killed as they carried out their media and humanitarian duty". It has regularly featured Islamic Jihad leaders and provided day-to-day coverage of the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it "conducted a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat".

Later, it issued a statement listing the names of the five TV crewmen and saying: "Intelligence from multiple sources confirmed that these individuals were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists."

Israel has regularly denied targeting journalists and says it takes steps to avoid hitting civilians.

The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas, fought several rounds against Israel in the past two decades, and fighters of the group have joined the fighting against Israel since October 2023. It said it has hostages in its custody too.

The group condemned Israel's killing of the five men in a statement but it did not claim any of them as a member.

Later on Thursday, health officials said five medical staff, including a pediatrician, were killed by Israeli fire at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern edge of Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have operated since October.

There was no Israeli comment on the medics' death.

The officials there said they had resisted army orders to evacuate the hospital since the new ground offensive began nearly three months ago.

The Israeli military, which on Wednesday said the hospital was in the heart of the complex fighting, renewed the evacuation orders three days ago, Gaza medics said.

Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.

The war was triggered by Hamas' attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

FUNERALS

Video from the scene of Thursday's attack showed the twisted wreckage of a white van with what appeared to be the remnants of the word "PRESS" in red on the back doors.

Later on Thursday, dozens of relatives and fellow journalists took part in the funerals of the five journalists, whose bodies were wrapped in white shrouds. Blue flak jackets bearing the word "PRESS" were placed on top of the shrouded bodies.

"The Israeli army justifies or excuses this targeting by claiming it is aimed at individuals involved in Palestinian organizations and cells. However, on the ground, these individuals were on journalistic assignments, residing in press vehicles and covering events," said Abed Meqdad, a correspondent for Al-Araby TV channel during the funerals.

Women wept besides the bodies as men performed special prayers before burials.

"May God take revenge on them, may God take revenge on them. He's the one that makes the news and broadcasts the crimes to the world, this is what they do to them," said the mother of Fadi Hassouna, one of the dead journalists.

In its end-of-year report, the Reporters Without Borders organisation said Gaza was the world's most dangerous region for journalists due to killings by the Israeli army.

Medics in the enclave said 13 other people were killed and 25 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood. The death toll could rise as many people were trapped under the rubble, they added.

In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on a house in the suburb of Sabra killed eight more people, medics said, bringing Thursday's death toll to 31.

On Wednesday, Hamas and Israel traded blame over their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.

Hamas said Israel had laid down further conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached.

"The occupation has set new conditions related to withdrawal, ceasefire, prisoners, and the return of the displaced, which has delayed reaching the agreement that was available," Hamas said.

Netanyahu responded in a statement: "The Hamas terrorist organization continues to lie, is reneging on understandings that have already been reached, and is continuing to create difficulties in the negotiations." —Reuters