Written by Nidal Al-Maghribi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Gaza authorities said an Israeli air strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital on Thursday, although the Israeli military said it attacked a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad activists.
Medics said the five were among at least 21 people killed in Israeli air attacks across the Strip before dawn, while Hamas and Israel traded blame for the delay in reaching a ceasefire agreement after more than 14 months of fighting.
The Union of Palestinian Journalists said that an air strike resulted in the killing of five journalists from Al-Quds Al-Youm channel who were in a broadcast vehicle in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Video from the scene showed the twisted wreckage of a white truck with what appeared to be the remains of the word “PRESS” in red on the back doors.
The union said that more than 190 Palestinian journalists have been martyred by Israeli fire since the start of the war in October 2023.
The Gaza-based channel described the raid as a massacre and said in a statement on the Telegram application that the five “were killed while carrying out their media and humanitarian duty.”
The Israeli army said that it “carried out a precise strike on a car containing a terrorist cell affiliated with Islamic Jihad in the Nuseirat area.”
Israel regularly denies targeting journalists and says it takes steps to avoid harming civilians.
Medics in the Strip said that eight other people were killed and 20 others were injured in an Israeli air strike on a house in the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City. They added that the death toll may rise because many people are trapped under the rubble.
In Gaza City, medics said that an Israeli raid on a house in the Sabra suburb killed eight more people, bringing the death toll on Thursday to 21.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Hamas movement and Israel exchanged blame for their failure to reach a ceasefire agreement despite the progress announced by both sides in recent days.
Hamas said that Israel had set more conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the movement of reneging on the understandings that had already been reached.
Hamas said, “The occupation set new conditions related to withdrawal, ceasefire, prisoners, and the return of the displaced, which delayed reaching the agreement that was available.”
Netanyahu responded in a statement: “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to lie, retract the understandings that have already been reached, and continues to create difficulties in the negotiations.”
The war was sparked by an October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken in Gaza, according to Israeli statistics.
The Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the 2.3 million people were displaced, and much of Gaza was reduced to rubble.
