An Israeli airstrike killed five journalists from the Al Quds satellite television network in the central Gaza Strip in the early hours of this Thursday, while they were working in front of the Al Awda hospital, near the Nuseirat refugee camp. . At the time of the bombing, the informants were inside a white van identified with the word “press” written in red, as seen in the images broadcast from Gaza by the Palestinian channel after this attack. In total, the Israeli bombings tonight in that area of the Strip have killed around twenty people, including the five journalists, and injured around thirty, according to the health authorities of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel has acknowledged responsibility for what it described as a “selective attack” against what it called “a squad of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.” Israeli authorities consider the Al Quds channel, founded in 2008, one of the media arms of Hamas.
The journalists killed in the bombing have been identified by their media outlet as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim Al Sheikh Ali, Mohammed Al Ladah, Faisal Abu Al Qumsan and Ayman Al Jadi. The latter, whose wife was admitted to the center to give birth, had gone to the hospital precisely to await the birth of his first child, as reported by Palestinian sources and the Qatari network Al Jazeera.
Five media workers lost their lives in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a bus for the press in front of Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, they are:
Fadi Hassouna
Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali
Mohammed Al-Ladah
Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan
Ayman Al-Jadi pic.twitter.com/uy5DosZIcI— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 26, 2024
The Israeli army has attacked the Al Awda hospital, where the van of the five dead journalists was located, repeatedly. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, this health center had been out of service on Tuesday after 80 days of Israeli siege.
With these five deaths, Israeli attacks in Gaza have already killed 201 journalists since the Israeli offensive in the Strip began in October 2023, according to data from the press office of the territory governed by Hamas. The NGO Committee to Protect Journalists estimates, for its part, that at least 141 professionals died in that period, while the International Federation of Journalists assured on December 10 that of the 104 journalists who died while carrying out their duties work, at least 55 perished in Palestine. In total, the Gaza Ministry of Health estimates that more than 45,361 Palestinians have died – mostly women and children – due to Israeli attacks.
