By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Gaza authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital on Thursday, even as the Israeli military said it attacked a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad fighters.
Doctors said the five were among 21 people killed in Israeli airstrikes across Israel before dawn, as Hamas and Israel traded blame for delays in reaching an agreement to end the war after more than 14 months of fighting.
The Palestinian Journalists Association said one strike killed five journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel who were in a broadcast car in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Video from the scene showed the wreckage of a white van with what appeared to be the remains of the word “PRESS” in red on the back doors.
The coalition said more than 190 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began in October 2023.
The Gaza-based channel called the protests murderous and said in a statement on Telegram that the five “were killed while doing their media and public work”.
The Israeli army said it “conducted a precision strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad cell in the area of Nuseirat.”
Israel has always denied targeting journalists and says it takes measures to prevent beatings.
Doctors in the enclave said eight other people were killed and 20 injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood. The death toll could rise as more people are trapped under the rubble, they added.
In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on a house in the town of Sabra killed eight more people, doctors said, bringing the death toll on Thursday to 21.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame for their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite the progress reported by both sides in the past days.
Hamas said Israel had set other conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings that had already been reached.
“The occupation imposed new conditions related to the withdrawal, cease-fire, prisoners, and the return of displaced persons, which has delayed reaching the existing agreement,” Hamas said.
Netanyahu responded in a statement: “The terrorist organization Hamas continues to lie, revises the understanding that has already been reached, and continues to create difficulties in negotiations.”
The war was caused by Oct. Oct. 7 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and 251 were arrested in Gaza, according to the Israelis.
Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza has already killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the 2.3 million inhabitants have been displaced and most of Gaza is in ruins.