Hamas says journalist killed in Gaza strike, Israel claims targeted militant
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In central Gaza, Mr Bassal said an Israeli air strike hit three houses in Deir el-Balah city and killed at least seven people.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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GAZA CITY - Hamas and rescuers said an Israeli strike on southern Gaza killed one journalist and wounded nine others on April 7, while the Israeli military reported it targeted a militant posing as a reporter.
The journalist is one of at least 12 people killed in Israeli strikes
An air strike hit a tent used by journalists in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, killing two people, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
Nine journalists were wounded in the strike, Mr Bassal added.
The Hamas government media office said journalist Hilmi al-Faqaawi, who worked for a local news agency, was killed in the attack.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry called Mr Faqaawi’s killing “part of a growing series of crimes targeting journalists directly, in a systematic attempt to silence the Palestinian voice and erase the truth”.
The Palestinian Journalists Protection Centre (PJPC) also condemned the attack, saying “the deliberate targeting of journalists constitutes a war crime”.
The Israeli military meanwhile said its forces had “struck the Hamas terrorist Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih in the Khan Yunis area” overnight, without specifying whether he had been killed.
The military claimed Mr Aslih operated “under the guise of a journalist and owns a press company”.
It said Mr Aslih had “infiltrated Israeli territory and participated in the murderous massacre carried out by the Hamas terrorist organisation on October 7th”.
“During the massacre, he documented and uploaded footage of looting, arson, and murder to social media.”
The Hamas government media office and the PJPC named Mr Aslih among the nine wounded in the Khan Yunis strike.
‘Trapped beneath rubble’
In central Gaza, Mr Bassal said an Israeli air strike hit three houses in Deir el-Balah city and killed at least seven people.
“Some people remain trapped beneath the rubble,” the spokesman said.
Deir el-Balah was the target of an Israeli evacuation order late April 6, warning residents of imminent attacks in response to a rocket salvo that the military said was fired from the area.
Further north, Mr Bassal said a strike hit “a group of civilians” in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood, killing three people.
The civil defence spokesman said there was also ongoing artillery shelling across Gaza and home demolitions in Rafah, on the territory’s southern border with Egypt.
Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire
According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 1,391 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,752.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. AFP
