Five Palestinian journalists from Al-Quds Today TV channel were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit their broadcasting van as they were covering events near Al-Awda Hospital, in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza strip on Thursday, December 26.
The slain journalists were identified as Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammad al-Ladah, and Fadi Hassouna.
Just hours before their van, which was marked with the word “Press” in large red letters, was hit, Ayman al-Jadi recorded a video with his slain colleagues. The video showed Ayman celebrating with them as he was awaiting the birth of his first child, who was born around the same time as he was killed in the airstrike.
Ayman’s brother Omar al-Jadi recorded and later shared a video of the moment Ayman and his colleagues were killed. In the video, a grief-stricken Omar sobs as the van carrying his brother is set ablaze.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) condemned the Israeli massacre of the five journalists on Thursday, pointing out that the deadly attack took the death toll of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed by Israel since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal aggression in Gaza to more than 190.
PJS called the murder of the journalists “an attempt to obscure the truth and stifle freedom of expression,” adding that it reflects the extent of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists. The syndicate also urged the international community and all human rights organizations to provide urgent protection for Palestinian journalists and take practical steps to stop the crimes committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against them.
For its part, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) denounced the crime on Thursday. CPJ’s program director in New York, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, clarified in a statement that with the assassination of Al-Quds Today journalists “nine Gazan journalists have been killed in less than two weeks”, urging the international community to act immediately “to protect Palestinian journalists in Gaza and end Israel’s impunity for these killings.”
On December 11, Palestinian broadcaster of local Al-Aqsa Radio Eman al-Shanti was killed alongside her three children and husband in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential building in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, in Gaza City. Four days later, Al-Mashhad News correspondent Mohammad Baalousha was killed after an Israeli quadcopter dropped a bomb on a street within the same neighborhood.
On the same day, Palestinian journalist and editor at a local news agency, Mohammad al-Qrinawi, his wife and children were killed in an Israeli aerial attack that struck their home in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
One day after Baalousha and al-Qrinawi were murdered, Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Baker al-Louh was killed in an Israeli airstrike, which targeted a Palestinian Civil Defense post in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
While the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have been systematically targeting Palestinian journalists and media workers in a bid to cover Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, it has also blocked foreign media outlets from entering the besieged enclave.
According to a report published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) last October, Israel has implemented diverse methods to orchestrate a media blackout in Gaza. In addition to the targeted killing of journalists, and prohibiting foreign journalists from accessing Gaza, IOF sought to destroy newsrooms and cut off internet and electricity, annihilating the Palestinian media infrastructure.
Meanwhile, western media has continued to whitewash Israel’s war crimes and the slaughtering of journalists by adopting the IOF’s narrative. Echoing Israeli media, The New York Times reported on Thursday, that the five murdered journalists from Al-Quds Today were associated with a militant group.
