5 Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike at Gaza Hospital: Palestinian Media

What’s New

Five journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike overnight when their parked vehicle was blasted in front of a hospital in Gaza, their Palestinian news outlet said on social media.

Why It Matters

A vehicle of Al-Quds Today was parked outside of the Al-Awda Hospital, which is in a refugee camp. The Gaza-based television station is affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.

“This is the vehicle that was targeted by Israeli warplanes in front of Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip where five Palestinian journalists were inside,” Quds News Network posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

The photo posted by Quds News Network showed a charred white press van on fire with smoke escaping on all sides. The word “press” in red is partially legible, with the “p” and “r” damaged by burns.

The network reported that the five journalists who were killed in the strike are Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed Al-Ladah, Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan and Ayman Al-Jadi. CNN reported that the five were sleeping in the van.

There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli government. It had previously said, however, that it would not deliberately attack journalists but that members of “an organized armed group” would be targets.

What To Know

Footage posted to social media by the Quds News Network shows the van fully encompassed by flames. It appears that none of the building structures around the vehicle were damaged in the strike.

“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,” Quds News Network posted to X.

Quds News said that the journalists were killed “while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty.”

Reuters reported that at least five other people were killed and over a dozen were wounded in the strike.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a U.S.-based group, has reported that at least 141 journalists and others in the media have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since October 7, 2023, which marks the “deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”

On that day last year, Hamas-led militants launched an attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and capturing around 250 hostages.

CPJ noted that journalists in Gaza face “particularly high risks” while covering the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, including “devastating Israeli airstrikes, famine, the displacement of 90 percent of Gaza’s population and the destruction of 80 percent of its buildings.”

The organization had determined before Wednesday’s attack that at least seven other journalists and one media worker were directly targeted by Israeli forces.

What People Are Saying

Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ program director, in a news release: “Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth. Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”

What Happens Next

There had been some progress reported by Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire but both sides blamed each other on Wednesday for the failure to conclude the war.