5 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli strike, Gaza Health Ministry says

An Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the Health Ministry said early Thursday. The Israeli military said all five were militants posing as reporters.

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 news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas, and took part in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel, which ignited the conflict. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups operate political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.

Story continues below 1:41 Israeli airstrike on Gaza post office sheltering Palestinians kills at least 30

Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings still visible 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.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists says over 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the conflict. 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 coverage of the conflict, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.

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