A Palestinian TV channel, Al-Quds Today, has claimed that an Israeli air strike, on Thursday, killed five of its journalists in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The channel is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad group, whose militants have joined Hamas in the ongoing war against Israel.
The strike targeted the journalists’ broadcast vehicle, parked outside a hospital, where the wife of one of the journalists was giving birth, according to Al-Quds Today.
The channel named the five victims as Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Ayman Al-Jadi, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna, and Mohammed Al-Lada’a.
In a statement released on Thursday, the channel said, “They were killed while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty.
“We affirm our commitment to continue our resistant media message,” they added.
Reacting, the Israeli military said confirmed intelligence show that the five individuals killed were “Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists.
So far, international media has not been able to independently verify the reports, having been barred by Israel from entering and working on the ground in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Middle East chapter, said they are “devastated by the reports that five journalists and media workers were killed inside their broadcasting vehicle by an Israeli strike.
“Journalists are civilians and must always be protected,” they stated.
Last week, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reported that more than 190 journalists have been killed, and at least 400 others injured, since the conflict began.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, which claimed about 1,200 lives, while about 250 persons were kidnapped.
Israel’s subsequent military campaign has resulted in at least 45,399 deaths in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry figures, considered reliable by the United Nations.