MONITORING (SW) – Gaza authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital on Thursday but the Israeli army said it had attacked a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad militants.
Medics said the five were among at least 21 people killed in Israeli air assaults across the Palestinian enclave before dawn as Hamas and Israel traded blame over delays in reaching a ceasefire deal after more than 14 months of fighting.
The Palestinian Journalists Union said one strike killed five journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel who were in a broadcast vehicle in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The union said more than 190 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began in October 2023.
The Gaza-based channel called the strike a massacre and said in a statement on Telegram the five “were killed as they carried out their media and humanitarian duty”.
The Israeli military said it “conducted a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat”.
Israel has regularly denied targeting journalists and says its take steps to avoid hitting civilians.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
