Al Jazeera journalist, cameraman killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, the Qatar-based network said on Wednesday.

The journalists were wearing press vests and were inside a car when they were targeted by an Israeli drone strike near the Aidia area, west of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera.

The outlet said that they were in the area to report from near the Gaza house of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in an attack the group has blamed on Israel.

The crew were hit as they were "courageously covering the events in northern Gaza", according to Mohamed Moawad, Al Jazeera Arabic's managing editor.

"Without Ismail, the world would not have seen the devastating images of these massacres," he wrote on X, adding that al-Ghoul "relentlessly covered the events and delivered the reality of Gaza to the world through Al Jazeera".

"His voice has now been silenced, and there is no longer a need to call out to the world. Ismail fulfilled his mission to his people and his homeland. Shame on those who have failed the civilians, journalists, and humanity."

Al Jazeera said in a report that Al-Ghoul was "renowned for his professionalism and dedication" and his coverage of the attacks on Gaza, "bringing the world's attention to the suffering and atrocities committed in Gaza", especially the attacks on Al-Shifa Hospital and the northern areas of the besieged enclave.

He was detained and beaten by Israeli troops during their raid on the hospital in March and was freed after 12 hours in Israeli custody.

The attack that killed the journalists brings the total number of media workers killed by Israel since its war began in Gaza on 7 October to at least 165.

More than 38,900 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.