Israel kills five Palestinian journalists in attack on media van

The Israeli genocide has killed at least 38 more Palestinians in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including five journalists.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Thursday said the overall death toll in the Palestinian enclave since October last year stood at 45,399, while more than 107,000 have been wounded.

On Thursday morning, Israel hit a broadcast van parked close to al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, killing the five journalists from the al-Quds Today TV channel, Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reported.

The journalists have been identified as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.

Al Jazeera’s al-Sharif said al-Jadi was waiting for his wife in front of the hospital while she was in labour to give birth to their first child.

Civil defence teams retrieved the bodies of the victims and extinguished a fire at the scene, the Quds News Network said.

The Israeli military claimed it carried out the “targeted” attack on the media vehicle carrying members of the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, and that it would continue to take action against “terrorist organisations” in Gaza. It provided no evidence to back its claim.

Israel, which has not allowed foreign journalists to enter Gaza except on military embeds, has been condemned by several press freedom organisations, which now rate the besieged enclave as the most dangerous part of the world for reporting.