Five Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza as Israel also strikes Yemen

Five Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in central Gaza, their employer has said, while Israel has also struck several areas in Houthi rebel-controlled Yemen in air raids.

Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed al-Lada’a were sleeping in their broadcasting truck, marked as press, when it was targeted in a direct strike by the Israeli military, witnesses told Palestinian media. Another 32 people were killed in other Israeli pre-dawn strikes across the territory, the local health ministry said.

The five men, who worked at Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group that fights alongside Hamas, were buried on Thursday morning.

Israel’s military said in a statement it had conducted “a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat … Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”

It also claimed responsibility for at least five airstrikes that hit what it said were military targets in Yemen, most of which is controlled by the Houthi movement, also known Ansar Allah, which is backed by Iran. Ports, power stations and Sana’a international airpot were among the targets struck on Thursday afternoon.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said three people were killed, two in the strikes on the airport and one in the port hits, and 11 were wounded in the attacks.

The head of the World Health Organization, who was at Sana’a airport in Yemen amid an Israeli bombardment on Thursday, said there was damage to infrastructure but that he was safe.

“One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X, adding that other UN staff were also safe but their departure had been delayed until repairs could be made.

The Houthis began attacking Israel shortly after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel. A Houthi missile strike injured 16 people in the Tel Aviv area last week, prompting warnings of retaliation from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a Channel 14 interview on Thursday evening Netanyahu said Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis. “We are just getting started with them,” he said.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said 195 journalists had been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, including those who died in this latest attack, and at least 400 have been injured over the past 14 months.

The Israel Defense Forces denies targeting media workers. However, a Guardian investigation found that amid a loosening of the IDF’s interpretation of the laws of war in the conflict, some in the military appeared to view journalists working in the territory for outlets controlled by or affiliated with Palestinian militant groups to be legitimate military targets.

Since foreign media are blocked by Israel from freely entering Gaza, the task of documenting the war on the ground is carried out only by Palestinian journalists, many of whom have continued to work despite the risks to their safety.

Under the Geneva conventions, a journalist can lose their civilian status if they engage in planning or carrying out combat operations. Working for an organisation such as Al-Quds Today does not make someone a target.

The Middle East branch of the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday that the organisation was “devastated by the reports that five journalists and media workers were killed inside their broadcasting vehicle by an Israeli strike”.

“Journalists are civilians and must always be protected,” it said on social media.

About 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed during Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, and 250 taken hostage. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

More than 45,000 people have been killed, more than half of whom are women and children, in Israel’s ensuing war on the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which the UN relies on for data on deaths.

The war has triggered a humanitarian crisis amid allegations that Israel has blocked the entry of aid and medicine, and is seeking to depopulate the northern third of the strip. It denies the allegations.

Israel’s Kan Radio reported on Thursday that renewed ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations are at an impasse as Hamas and Israel traded blame for reneging on understandings that had already been reached. Hamas has allegedly walked back a pledge to submit a list of hostages to be released in a first stage of a deal, and Arabic-language media reported that Hamas has accused Israel of introducing new conditions related to its withdrawal from the strip.

Both sides say discussions are continuing, although the Israeli negotiating team returned from a week of talks hosted by mediator Qatar earlier this week.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem on Thursday, Israel’s extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the contested holy site of Temple Mount, known to Palestinians as al-Aqsa.

The visit was to mark the beginning of the Hanukkah holiday, his office said. “The minister recited a prayer for our soldiers’ safety, the return of the hostages, the living and the dead, and total victory in the war.”

Ben-Gvir has made several controversial trips to the contested holy site since entering government at the end of 2022, and has been accused of attempting to stir up unrest by unilaterally announcing that Jews are free to worship there. Netanyahu’s office said again on Thursday that “the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed”.