Deir Al Bala, Gaza Strip — The Health Ministry announced early Thursday that five Palestinian journalists were killed overnight outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said all five were extremists posing as journalists.
The attack hit a van outside Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseyrat refugee camp built in the central part of the territory. The journalists worked for local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a TV channel affiliated with Islamic Jihad militant groups.
Islamic Jihad is a smaller, more militant ally of Hamas that took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that sparked the latest war. The Israeli military has identified four of them as militant propaganda workers, and intelligence services, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives discovered by soldiers in the Gaza Strip, have confirmed that all five belong to the group. He said he confirmed it.
In addition to their armed wings, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian extremist organizations also have political, media, and philanthropic activities.
Associated Press footage shows the van’s incinerated shell, with press marks still visible on the rear door. The funeral, held outside the hospital, was attended by several young people, many of them sobbing. All the bodies were wrapped in white shrouds, with blue press vests draped over them.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has announced that more than 130 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of the war. Israel does not allow foreign reporters to enter Gaza, except for military garrisons.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera network and denounced six journalists in the Gaza Strip as extremists. The Qatar-based broadcaster denied the allegations and accused Israel of trying to silence its coverage of the war, which focused on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.
Separately, the military announced that a 35-year-old reservist was killed during fighting in central Gaza early Thursday. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since ground operations began more than a year ago.
The war began when Hamas-led militants raided across the border and raided nearby military bases and rural areas. They killed about 1,200 people (mostly civilians) and abducted about 250. There are still about 100 hostages in the Gaza Strip, and at least a third of them are thought to be dead.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and ground attacks, according to the Health Ministry. It said more than half of the dead were women and children, but did not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel claims, without providing evidence, that it has killed more than 17,000 militants.
The attack caused widespread destruction and forced approximately 90% of the country’s population of 2.3 million to flee their homes. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into rough tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
Schraffa writes for The Associated Press.
