Five Gaza journalists killed in Israeli strike targeting armed group

A Palestinian TV channel says five of its journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip.

They were in a Quds Today van parked outside al-Awda hospital, where the wife of one of the journalists was about to give birth, in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.

The channel posted a video of what it said was the burning vehicle with "press" signage on the back doors.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted "Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists" and that steps were taken to avoid harming civilians.

The BBC has not been able to verify claims made by either side, with international media being prevented by Israel from entering and freely working on the ground in Gaza.

Quds Today is affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an armed group that took part in the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. The unprecedented attack triggered the war in Gaza. The TV channel is believed to receive funding from the group.

In a separate development, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital on the northern edge of Gaza said on Thursday about 50 people, including five of its staff, had been killed in an Israeli strike on a building by the hospital. A paediatrician and two paramedics were among them.

The IDF said it was "unaware of strikes" in the hospital area, adding that it was looking into claims that five doctors had been killed.

"The number of casualties reported in the media does not align with the information held by the IDF," it said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "devastated by the reports" of five journalists being killed in the central Gaza Strip.

"Journalists are civilians and must always be protected," it said.

The Israeli military named the five killed as Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali; Faisal Abdallah Muhammad Abu Qamsan; Mohammed Ayad Khamis al-Ladaa; Ayman Nihad Abd Alrahman Jadi; and Fadi Ihab Muhammad Ramadan Hassouna.

It said "intelligence from multiple sources confirmed" that all were PIJ operatives, and that a list found during an operation in Gaza "explicitly identified four" of them as such.

In a statement, Quds Today said the men "were killed as they carried out their media and humanitarian duty".

As of 20 December, at least 133 Palestinian journalists have been killed during the course of the war, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists, according to the CPJ.

The press freedom organisation has called for accountability for Palestinian journalists who have been directly targeted by the Israeli military.

At least another five people were also reported killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City on Wednesday.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency, and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, also said a further 20 people were injured in the city's al-Zeitoun neighbourhood.

The Israeli military has not commented on the reported bombing.

Meanwhile, the father of a two-week-old Palestinian girl has told the BBC how his baby daughter froze to death in a tent in Gaza - the third child in a week to die in similar conditions.

Mahmoud Ismail Al-Faseeh said he woke up in the severe cold to find his daughter, Sila, suffering convulsions. She was rushed to hospital but died from hypothermia, the head of paediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told the Associated Press news agency.

The family was sheltering in al-Mawasi area on Gaza's coast, a strip of land designated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a humanitarian zone but which has been hit by air strikes.

Ahmed al-Farra, the head of paediatrics, said two other babies - one three days old and the other a month old - had been brought in over the past 48 hours after dying from hypothermia.

Hopes of progress towards a ceasefire in recent days have begun to recede, with Hamas and Israel blaming each other.

Hamas accused the Israeli government of imposing "new conditions" that it said were delaying the agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the group was reneging on understandings that had already been reached about a possible ceasefire.

The latest statements mark a notable change of tone on both sides following optimistic signals.

The Israeli military launched air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to last year's Hamas attack. About 1,200 people were killed in the attack and another 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's health ministry says. Almost two million people - 90% of the population - have been displaced, according to the UN.

Additional reporting by Jaroslav Lukiv.