GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Dec 26, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Five members of the Palestinian TV channel "Al-Quds Today", which is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement, were killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle, the outlet said in a statement.

The missile hit their broadcast truck as it was parked in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to the statement.

The channel identified the five staffers as Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Ayman Al-Jadi, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed Al-Lada'a.

They were killed "while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty", the outlet's statement said.

"We affirm our commitment to continue our resistant media message," it said.

The Israeli army said in its own statement it had conducted "a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat" overnight.

"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence," it said.

According to people who saw the attack in Nuseirat, a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft hit the broadcast vehicle, which was parked outside Al-Awda Hospital, setting it on fire and killing those inside.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said last week more than 190 journalists have been killed and at least 400 have been injured since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. 

The October 7 attack last year by Hamas resulted in 1,208 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's military campaign, launched in response, has killed at least 45,361 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.