Five Palestinian journalists were killed outside a hospital in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip overnight, the Health Ministry said early Thursday. According to the Israeli military, all five were militants posing as reporters.
The strike hit a car in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the constructed Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the territory. The journalists worked for local news agency Al-Quds Today, a television channel linked to the militant group Islamic Jihad.
Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in its attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the conflict. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad militants found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were linked to the group.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups engage in political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.
Associated Press footage showed the burned shell of a van with press markings still visible on the back doors. Several young men attended the funeral outside the hospital, many of them sobbing. The bodies were all wrapped in white shrouds with blue pressure vests draped over them.
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According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, over 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the conflict began. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza, except at military bases.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab network Al Jazeera and accused six of his Gaza reporters to be militant. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage of the conflict, which focuses heavily on civilian casualties in Israeli military operations.
Separately, the military said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed in fighting in central Gaza early Thursday. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground operation began over a year ago.
The conflict began when Hamas-led militants stormed the border in a surprise attack on nearby army bases and farming communities. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250. About 100 hostages are still in the Gaza Strip, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
According to the Ministry of Health, over 45,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli air and ground offensive. It says more than half of the fatalities were women and children, but it does not say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants without providing evidence.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and forced around 90 percent of the 2.3 million residents from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
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