Israeli Forces Bomb Press Van in Gaza, Killing 5 Palestinian Journalists

Israeli forces targeted and killed five journalists in a strike in central Gaza on Thursday, reportedly setting their vehicle ablaze as they were sleeping inside it.

The journalists, with the al-Quds Today TV channel, were near the al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat refugee camp when Israel struck their van. Photos and videos circulating on social media showed that the van was clearly marked as a press vehicle; one video showing the van engulfed in a massive blaze was taken by the brother of one of the journalists, who screamed and sobbed as he filmed.

The journalists were identified by local officials and the news outlet as Ayman al-Jadi, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Mohammed al-Ladah, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, and Fadi Hassouna.

Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, who has also previously been targeted by Israeli military threats, said that al-Jadi was waiting for his wife, who was in the hospital, giving birth to their first child together.

“He had recently married amidst this devastating genocide and was filled with hope to welcome his newborn tonight. Tragically, Israel took his life just hours before he could hold his baby for the first time,” al-Sharif wrote.

Gaza government officials say that the attack brings the total number of journalists killed by Israeli forces since the genocide began last October to 201. Israel has long had a practice of assassinating journalists, despite international law barring the targeting of civilians, and has seemingly sought to erase journalists in Gaza in an attempt to cover up their genocidal acts.

“The Government Media Office condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation’s targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists,” the agency said in a statement. “We hold the ‘Israeli’ occupation, the American administration, and the countries participating in the crime of genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France fully responsible for committing this heinous and brutal crime.”

North Gaza-based Hossam Shabat, an Al Jazeera journalist named with al-Sharif in Israel’s “assassination threat” list in September, has said that reporters in Gaza have no choice but to live in makeshift shelters, himself living in a bombed-out building, as they travel around the region to bring the news of their peoples’ slaughter to the world.

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Like it has before following their massacres of and threats toward Gaza journalists, the Israeli military claimed, without evidence, that the journalists were “terrorists.”

Numerous Palestinian journalists and humanitarian groups have noted that, when pressed on similar claims, Israel never corroborates them, sometimes inventing absurd narratives; earlier this year, Israel killed Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul, and claimed after his death that he had received a military ranking from Hamas in 2007 — when al-Ghoul was 10 years old.

Shabat and advocacy groups have condemned Western media for their silence on Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian journalists.

“These five young men have been working tirelessly, reporting on our own genocide. They deserve all the recognition and respect for their efforts, yet none of the Western media want to acknowledge that Israel is systematically killing journalists in Gaza,” said Shabat. “Shame on every journalist who isn’t speaking about the systematic killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza; shame on every one of you.”

“By remaining silent as their Palestinian colleagues are killed, kidnapped and attacked, American media professionals give tacit approval to the far-right Israeli government to continue its campaign of censorship targeting all those who expose its ongoing genocide,” said Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper in a statement. “The genocidal Israeli government enjoys impunity in attacking the media because of a lack of reporting on its killings, attacks and kidnappings targeting journalists.”