Three Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli strike in central Gaza, first responders said.
The Hamas-run Civil Defense agency in Gaza said their vehicle was hit in the al-Zahra area and named them as Mohammed Salah Qeshta, Anas Ghunaim and Abdul Raouf Shaath. It turns out they work for an aid organization in Egypt.
Israel’s military said it struck “several suspects who were operating a drone affiliated with Hamas … in a manner that threatened” its troops. It added that the incident is under examination.
Another eight people, two of them children, were killed by Israeli artillery and gunfire across Gaza on Wednesday, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Medics said three people, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed by Israeli tank fire elsewhere in central Gaza, and that a 13-year-old boy and a girl were killed by Israeli gunfire in the southern part of Khan Younis, according to Reuters news agency.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday morning that its troops had killed a “terrorist who crossed the Yellow Line and approached” them, without specifying a location. The Yellow Line demarcates the territory of Gaza that is still under Israeli control under the ceasefire deal.
At least 466 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on October 10, according to the health ministry.
The Israeli military said three of its soldiers were killed in attacks by Palestinian armed groups during the same period.
The three photojournalists killed on Wednesday – one of whom was a regular contributor to the French news agency AFP – were reportedly working for the Egyptian Relief Committee in the Gaza Strip to film its camps for displaced people.
A spokesperson for the humanitarian organization said that the vehicle that was hit was marked with its logo and that it was “targeted during a humanitarian mission, resulting in the martyrdom of three individuals”.
Hamas called the strike a “dangerous escalation in flagrant violations of the ceasefire agreement”.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says it constitutes a war crime and evidence of what it calls “a systematic Israeli policy aimed at silencing the Palestinian voice, blocking the transmission of facts, and hiding the crimes committed against civilians in the Gaza Strip”, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented the killing of at least 206 journalists and media workers by Israeli fire in Gaza since the start of the war – the deadliest conflict for journalists ever documented.
Before Wednesday, two journalists were killed in Israeli strikes during the ceasefire, and a third was killed by members of a Palestinian armed group, according to data from the US-based organization.
International news outlets rely on local journalists in Gaza, as Israel does not allow foreign media, including BBC News, to send their journalists to the territory independently. Some journalists were brought to Gaza by the Israeli military under controlled access.
The war was triggered by an attack led by Hamas in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, in which more than 71,550 people were killed, according to the territory’s health ministry.