An Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said early Thursday. The strike hit a car outside the Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the territory, per the AP. The journalists were working for the local Quds News Network. The Israeli military said it had targeted a group of fighters from Palestine Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas.
AP footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings still visible on the back doors. CNN, which notes that the news station has been tied to the PIJ, says that its own footage showed the vehicle engulfed in flames, with the words "TV" and "Press" seen on it. Other reporters present say that Ayman Al-Jadi, Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Mohammed Al-Lada'a, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali, and Fadi Hassouna were all sleeping in the van when the strike took place.
Al-Quds Today TV has slammed the attack and said the five died "while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty." An Israeli military spokesperson, however, said on social media that claims about journalists being targeted were "fake," per the New York Times. "The IDF eliminated Islamic Jihad terrorists," wrote the IDF's Nadav Shoshani. The Committee to Protect Journalists says that more than 130 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the war started, per the AP. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
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