Ahmed Mansour (on the right), a journalist from the local agency "Palestine Today," being burned alive (on the left) following an Israeli bombing on a journalists' tent near the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes (south of the Gaza Strip), during the night from Sunday, April 6 to Monday, April 7. Montage published on social media by Anas el-Sharif, al-Jazeera correspondent.
An Israeli strike on Monday, at around 2 a.m., hit a journalists' tent near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, killing at least one journalist and injuring several others, according to Al-Jazeera.
The journalist killed was identified as Helmi al-Faqaawi. Six others were injured, including Mahmoud Awad, a cameraman for Al-Jazeera. A later statement from Hamas’ media office reported nine journalists wounded and said another person, a “young man” identified as Youssef al-Khazandar, was also killed.
The Israeli military said it had “targeted a Hamas terrorist,” but provided no further details, according to The Times of Israel.
A video shared by Al-Jazeera and circulating on social media showed a man being burned alive as fire engulfed the tent, while residents screamed for help. The man was identified as Ahmad Mansour, a journalist with the Palestine Today news agency, according to Al-Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif. Sharif reported that Mansour is in intensive care, and the journalist killed in the strike, Faqaawi, also worked with the same outlet.
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, at least 207 journalists and media workers have been killed, 390 wounded, and 49 detained, according to updated figures released Monday by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. Hamas’ media office put the journalist death toll at 210 in a separate statement.
Calls for protection and accountability
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called for “international mobilization to provide urgent protection to journalists” and urged the International Criminal Court to expedite its review of complaints filed over the killings.
The Palestinian Journalists Forum condemned the attack as a “heinous crime and deliberate assault on journalists,” accusing Israel of targeting media professionals to suppress coverage of its actions in Gaza. The statement, carried by Al-Jazeera, said the continued targeting of journalists violates international law and is aimed at “preventing the transmission of truth.”
The Islamic Jihad militant group also denounced the strike as a “full-fledged war crime and blatant violation of international conventions.”
The Israeli military, responding to the backlash, said it “strives to avoid harming civilians” and blamed the deaths on Hamas, which it accused of embedding itself in residential areas, The Times of Israel reported.
After a two-month cease-fire that saw the release of 33 Israeli and five Thai hostages, Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza on March 18. Since then, more than 1,391 Palestinians have been killed and 3,434 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The total death toll since Oct. 7, 2023, now stands at 50,752 killed and 115,475 injured, the office said in a statement Monday.
Rubio condemns Iran's 'outrageous' attacks on Kuwait
