Five Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike in Gaza, Palestinian Officials Say

The Israeli military said it had struck a vehicle containing a “terrorist cell” in the Nuseirat area of Gaza.

Five journalists working for a network associated with a Palestinian militant group were killed early Thursday when their vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat area of Gaza, according to the local authorities and news media reports.

The Israeli military said its air force had struck a vehicle overnight in Nuseirat with a “terrorist cell” from the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad inside. Reports about journalists being targeted were “fake claims,” Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said on social media.

The media office of Gaza’s Hamas-run government said five journalists from Al Quds Today, a Palestinian television channel, were killed in an Israeli strike on their broadcast vehicle. The channel has regularly featured Islamic Jihad leaders and promoted the group’s ideology.

The office said this brought the number of journalists killed in Gaza to 201 since the start of the war in October last year.

The vehicle, bearing the word “Press” in red letters, was hit near the gates of Al Awda Hospital, according to a post on social media from Quds News Network, another Palestinian news outlet.

The Reuters news agency published a photo from Nuseirat of a charred white van bearing the word “Press” on its rear doors, with smoke coming out of it.

The local government and Al Quds Today identified the five killed as Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali, Ayman Al-Jadi, and Mohammed Al-Lada’a. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the strike and described it as a “war crime.”

The Israeli military and Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, said in a joint statement later on Thursday that they had intelligence showing that those killed had been “masquerading as journalists.” They cited information including a list that the Israeli military had found in Gaza of Islamic Jihad fighters, which included the names of four of the five men.

The military has previously said that it has never deliberately targeted journalists but that it considers members of “an organized armed group,” such as the military wing of Hamas, or those who participate in hostilities, as lawful targets.

In January, Al-Quds Today said on Telegram that the general manager of its channel, Wael Abu-Fanounah, was killed in an Israeli attack. The Israeli military said he was a senior member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, without mentioning the news channel.

In October, the military accused six Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza of being fighters with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Al Jazeera strongly denied the allegation.

International press organizations have called for the protection of journalists in the Gaza war, which began after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year. The conflict has taken an “unprecedented” toll on journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting.