DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) – An Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the Health Ministry said early yesterday.
The strike hit a car outside the Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the territory. The journalists were working for the local Quds News Network. The military said it targeted a group of fighters from Islamic Jihad. Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings 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 press vests draped over them.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said over 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.
