31 July 2024 | CNN
Al Jazeera journalists killed in reported Israeli airstrike in Gaza, network says
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Two Al Jazeera correspondents were killed in a reported Israeli airstrike in Al-Shati refugee camp, northern Gaza, on Wednesday, according to the news network, sparking condemnation from advocacy groups and highlighting the dangers for local reporters covering the war.
Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman, Rami Al-Rifi, who lived in the besieged enclave, were killed in an airstrike on their car in the al Shati refugee camp, according to the Qatar-based network. The journalists, both aged 27, were reporting live for much of the day from a location close to the family home of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Tuesday.
Al-Ghoul was wearing a press flak vest when he was killed, according to his colleague. He had not seen his wife and two-year-old daughter Zeina, who were displaced in central Gaza, in 10 months. “These days are not like any other,” he said in a post on X in June. “Zeina began running, talking, asking questions… She was growing up without me seeing her.”
Al Jazeera condemned what it claimed was the “targeted assassination” of its journalists by Israeli forces, claiming the attack was “part of a systematic targeting campaign against the network’s journalists and their families since October 2023.”
CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
The network’s managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, said in a post on X that Al-Ghoul was “renowned for his professionalism and dedication, bringing the world’s attention to the suffering and atrocities committed in Gaza… Without Ismail, the world would not have seen the devastating images of these massacres.”
More than nine months of Israel’s bombing campaign has shredded the besieged enclave, erased entire neighborhoods and deepened a humanitarian crisis. Palestinian reporters have become the eyes and ears of those suffering under the shadow of war. Both Israel and Egypt, which control Gaza’s borders, have so far refused to give international journalists unfettered access to the strip, saying that they cannot guarantee their safety.
It is the photos, footage and reporting from local reporters, often gathered at great personal risk, that have shown the world what is happening. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has marked the deadliest period for journalists since 1992. As of July 31, at least 111 journalists and media workers have been killed since October — 109 of whom were Palestinian — according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
A reporter in Gaza who had spent much of the day with the Al Jazeera crew told CNN on Wednesday that he was 300 meters away from the missile that hit their vehicle. Video from the scene shows the burnt-out shell of a small saloon car that appears to have been targeted from above.
“I was going home close to where we were filming when one, exactly one missile from a drone targeted Ismail and Rami,” said Ayman Abed, a resident of Al-Shati camp. “There was nothing unusual except the sound of drones in the sky humming. It was one strike on their car.”
Israel launched its military offensive after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others abducted.
Israeli strikes in Gaza have since killed more than 39,000 Palestinians and injured another 90,000, according to the Ministry of Health there.
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