GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Dec 26, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A Palestinian 
TV channel affiliated with a militant group said five of its journalists were 
killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in Gaza, with Israel's 
military saying it had targeted a "terrorist cell".

A missile hit the journalists' broadcast truck as it was parked in the 
Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a statement from their 
employer, Al-Quds Today.

It is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, whose militants have fought alongside 
Hamas in the Gaza Strip and took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel 
that sparked the war.

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 statement said.

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

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

It added that "prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the 
risk of harming civilians".

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

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Middle East arm said the organisation 
was "devastated by the reports that five journalists and media workers were 
killed inside their broadcasting vehicle by an Israeli strike".

"Journalists are civilians and must always be protected," it added in a 
statement on social media.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said last week that more than 190 
journalists had been killed and at least 400 injured since the start of the 
war in Gaza.

It was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack last year, which resulted 
in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli 
official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign 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.