Israeli strikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed at least nine people, including a child and a journalist working for Al Jazeera, health officials said.
In Gaza City, an air strike hit an apartment in the Sabra neighbourhood, killing four people, including two women and a child, and wounding others, medics said. The Israeli military said it struck a militant target, without providing further details.
Elsewhere, a woman was shot dead in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, while an air strike in Khan Younis in the south killed at least one person and wounded eight others, medics said.
Later in the day, an air strike hit the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, including Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Washah.
Al Jazeera said he was killed while working and called it a “heinous crime”.
“Al Jazeera Media Network condemns the deliberate killing of its Al Jazeera Mubasher Channel’s cameraman Ahmed Washah by Israeli occupation forces … in an Israeli bombardment that targeted a house in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.
The pan-Arab news network said Mr Washah was the 12th of its journalists killed in Gaza since October 2023, and noted that his brother, also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed earlier this year.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the killing and called for accountability, saying nearly 300 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the war began.
The Israeli military said it had killed a Hamas militant who also worked as an Al Jazeera photojournalist and alleged he was a sniper, but did not provide evidence. Hamas and Al Jazeera both deny any affiliation.
Gaza’s health ministry says more than 1,010 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since a ceasefire took effect, with violence continuing despite the truce and both sides accusing each other of violations.
Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and US envoy Nickolay Mladenov on implementing the next phase of the Gaza peace plan have so far failed to produce agreement, amid continued deadlock between Israel and Hamas over disarmament and governance.
- with Reuters
