Al Jazeera condemns killing of its journalists in Israeli air strike

News outlet says incident shows 'urgent need for immediate legal action against occupation forces'

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Al Jazeera called the killing of two of its journalists in an Israeli strike in Gaza on Wednesday a "cold-blooded assassination".

Correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul and cameraman Rami Al Rifi were "targeted by Israeli occupation forces" while reporting from Al Shati refugee camp, the Qatar-based news outlet said in a statement.

"This latest attack on Al Jazeera journalists is part of a systematic targeting campaign against the network's journalists and their families since October 2023," it said.

Since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, Al Jazeera has broadcast reports on the effects of Israel's war.

The network's office in the enclave has already been bombed during the conflict and two other correspondents were killed.

Al Jazeera said the killing of Al Ghoul and Al Rifi showed "the urgent need for immediate legal action against the occupation forces".

The channel said it would "pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes and stands in unwavering solidarity with all journalists in Gaza".

Palestinians inspect a vehicle in Gaza city where Al Jazeera said two of its journalists were killed in an Israeli strike. Reuters

In a statement, Hamas condemned the killings as a "heinous crime" that it said was "aimed at terrorising and silencing" Palestinian journalists as they reported "the ongoing genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip for nearly 10 months".

Al Jazeera has been the focus of months of criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

Last month, an Israeli court confirmed it had extended a ban on the network, which broadcasts in Arabic and English, initially placed on Al Jazeera in early May.

The spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the killings and said the incident and others like it "must be fully and transparently investigated, and there must be accountability".

In January, Israel said an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an air strike in Gaza were "terror operatives".

The following month, it accused another journalist with the channel, who was wounded in another strike, of being a "deputy company commander" with Hamas.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel's allegations and accused it of systematically aiming at Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.

Its bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al Dahdouh, was wounded in an Israeli strike in December that killed the network's cameraman. His wife, two of their children and a grandson were killed in the October bombardment of central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp.

Al Dahdouh's eldest son was the Al Jazeera staff journalist killed in January when a strike hit a car in Rafah.