Israel kills 5 journalists, 5 hospital staff in 24 hours in Gaza

In the early hours of the night on Thursday December 25, the Israeli army targeted a press van in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza that was carrying a crew from Al-Quds TV, killing the five journalists inside. The targeted killing of the journalists has raised the total number of journalists killed by Israeli forces since the outbreak of the war on Gaza to 201.

The journalists had completed their evening assignments and were using the broadcast van as a makeshift sleeping area. Notably, the vehicle was not located in a combat zone but rather near a hospital. The fatal airstrike burned and destroyed the van, marked as press, and according to witnesses, left four of the five bodies “in an unrecognizable state.”

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

The reason that the journalists had parked their van outside the Al-Awda Hospital, was because al-Jadi’s wife was inside the hospital, giving birth to their first child. 

Al-Jadi’s brother, Omar, 24, said that he was with his brother Ayman just before the van was targeted.  

“I was with him two hours before he was martyred. He was cheerful, laughing and smiling a lot. He was eagerly awaiting the birth of his first child. We had dinner the night of the bombing and spent hours praying for his wife who was in the hospital giving birth,” Omar said. 

Omar described his brother’s elation in the hours before his death as he eagerly awaited the arrival of  his first child. “He was happy and laughing all night and talking to us all, his happiness that night as he waited for his baby was enough to make us forget that we were living in war,” Omar recounted.

“In the end, we went to sleep. I dozed off for a while and then woke up and found the bus burning in front of me. I knew my brother was inside it. I approached but couldn’t because of the intensity of the fire and the fear that gripped me. I didn’t know what to do,” Omar told Mondoweiss, breaking down in tears.

“I saw my brother in front of me, burning, and I couldn’t do anything,” he cried. 

“They deprived him of the joy of seeing his son. He used to say, “I don’t care if I die, but I hope to see my son before I die.” He never saw his son. His son will be born an orphan,” Omar continued.

“Is this because he is a journalist who conveys the news, the truth, the picture and the scandals that Israel is committing? What did he do to deserve being burned to death?”

In a statement after the killing of the journalists, the Israeli army claimed that it attacked the press van because it was carrying members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, accusing them of “posing as journalists.” The army specifically accused the journalists of working as “combat propagandists” for Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli army provided no evidence to back its claims. Journalists denounced the attack and the army’s claims, with Dropsite News reporter Ryan Grim stating on X: “The IDF is entitled to its opinion and is free to engage in media criticism, but deliberately killed 5 journalists because you don’t like their work is terrorism, barbarism, a crime against humanity, and should be prosecuted immediately.”

The government media office in Gaza released a statement saying, “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.”

Journalists in the northern Gaza Strip gathered near the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital to decry the attack, and protest against the treatment of journalists since the onset of Israeli aggression.

At the protest was Basil Khair al-Din, director of Al-Quds TV in the northern Gaza Strip. “This is a war of extermination imposed by Israel on us, and all segments of society suffer, not just journalists,” Khair al-Din told Mondoweiss. 

“But the coverage continues. The occupation is delusional thinking that by assassinating these five journalists it can silence our voices or blind our cameras from conveying crimes and facts. But it is pushing us, to avenge the blood of these martyrs, to continue our journey until we broadcast good news to our people that this war has ended.” 

The killing of the five journalists came amidst a deadly 24 hours in Gaza. On the same day as the attack on the press van, Israeli airstrikes and attacks in the area around Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza killed an estimated 50 people, including five medical staff, according to the hospital’s director. On the same day, a baby reportedly froze to death in a displacement tent due to extreme cold weather, the fourth such death reported in 72 hours.