The Israeli military says it was targeting militants from the Hamas-allied group Islamic Jihad.
An Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported early Thursday.
The attack hit a vehicle outside Al-Awda Hospital, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The victims were journalists working for the local Quds News Network.
The Israeli military said it targeted a cell of fighters from Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas, saying members of terror groups in Gaza often work under the guise of journalism.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the war began in October last year. A separate report of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), published in early December, estimated that Palestine was by far the deadliest place in the world for journalists over the past year.
Israel has banned foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip except on military boats.
Israel also has bans pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera, accusing six of its reporters in Gaza of being militants. The channel, based in Qatar, denies the accusations and says Israel is trying to stifle its media coverage, which focuses on heavy civilian casualties during Israeli military operations.
More than 45,000 Palestinian deaths since the start of the conflict
Separately, the Israeli army announced the death of a 35-year-old reserve soldier during fighting in central Gaza early Thursday. Since the start of the Israeli ground operation more than a year ago, 389 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
On the other hand, Israeli air and ground operations have resulted in the deaths of more than 45,000 Palestinians.according to the territory’s Ministry of Health. More than half of the victims are believed to be women and children, but the ministry did not reveal the number of fighters.
Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The conflict caused massive destruction and displacement of around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. Hundreds of thousands of them now live in overcrowded makeshift camps along the coast, in harsh conditions and with little protection from the cold and wet of winter.
