GAZA, Palestine: Five members of the Palestinian TV channel “Al-Quds Today”, were killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle, the channel said in a statement.
According to the statement, the strike hit their broadcast truck as it was parked in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
The channel identified the five members as Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Khalil, Ayman Al-Jadi, Fadi Hassouna, and Mohammed Al-Lada’a. The news channel said that their members were killed while performing their journalistic duty.
The news channel affirmed its commitment to continue broadcasting its message of resistance to the occupation.
The Israeli army also admitted that it had conducted a precise strike on a vehicle in the area of Nuseirat overnight.
Over 200 journalists killed in Gaza
AFP cited eye-witnesses as saying a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft hit the broadcast vehicle, which was parked outside Al-Awda Hospital, setting it on fire and killing those inside.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate stated last week that more than 190 journalists have been killed and at least 400 have been wounded since the start of the war in Gaza on October 8, 2023.
Around 400 Palestinian journalists wounded
The latest killing of five journalists in an Israeli attack in Gaza caps a deadly year for news organisations and Palestinian journalists covering Israel’s war on the enclave, Al-Jazeera reported.
Al-Jazeera cited Gaza Government Media Office as saying that the Israeli killing of five journalists earlier this morning has taken the death toll among media workers in the strip since the war began to 201.
The Government Media Office condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation’s targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists, according to local media reports.
It called on the world and organisations to prosecute Israel’s crimes in international courts and bring the criminals of the occupation to justice, according to Al-Jazeera.
Another deadly year for journalists
An International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) survey in mid-December reported that 104 journalists were killed across the world in 2024 with Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza making up more than half of all those killed, with 55 dead.
Similarly, six media persons were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon and one reporter was killed in Israel’s bombing campaign of Syria.
Reporters in Gaza have also been arrested, imprisoned and interrogated by Israeli troops and had their equipment confiscated or smashed, Al-Jazeera reported.
75 Palestinian reporters arrested
Since October 2023, 75 Palestinian reporters have been imprisoned by Israeli forces, with only 30 freed since. Another 49 have been wounded in attacks and at least two are missing, Arab media reported.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported that 54 journalists had been killed across the world this year up until December 1, 2024, but still found that Palestinian journalists represented the majority of those killed. The group said that the Israeli military was responsible for killing a third of all journalists this year.
CJP calls for accountability
A week after the IFJ survey released its results earlier this month, another four journalists were killed in Gaza, including Iman al-Shanti, a 36-year-old Palestinian who worked as a reporter for Al Jazeera’s AJ+ platform.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) earlier this month debounced Israel’s killing of Palestinian journalists in the space of a week, calling on the world to hold the country accountable for its strikes against the media.
