The tent camp near Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis went up in flames after the Israeli airstrike (Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
A Palestinian journalist was burned alive, and at least 10 other people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that targeted a tent accommodating reporters in the southern Gaza Strip.
Videos shared online appear to show journalist Hilmi Al-Faqaawi on fire after the tent he was in in Khan Younis was struck by the Israeli military, as his colleagues tried to rescue him, but to no avail.
Another video shows his charred body wrapped in a blanket and carried out by people.
Nine other journalists and another individual were injured and treated at the nearby Nasser Hospital, which was targeted in an airstrike last month.
One of the journalists has been identified as Ahmed Mansour, with Palestinian journalists and activists sharing his image on social media and stating he remains in “critical” condition.
The horrific scenes were reminiscent of an Israeli airstrike in October last year, which struck a campsite next to Al-Aqsa Hospital, when scores of civilians were burned alive.
Al-Faqaawi’s death brings the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 to at least 210.
Deliberately targeting journalists or failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants in a conflict zone may constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.
The war in Gaza is the deadliest conflict ever for journalists, according to a recent report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ Costs of War project. The findings state that more journalists had been killed in the Palestinian territory than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the United States war in Afghanistan combined.
Israel resumed its attacks on Gaza in mid-March after the war largely subsided in January because of a ceasefire with Hamas.
The truce saw Hamas free dozens of Israeli and foreign captives in exchange for thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
More than 1,330 people have been killed and close to 3,300 others injured since the war resumed. In total, over 50,000 people have been killed since 2023, mostly civilians.
Hamas on Sunday night said it fired rockets at the Israeli city of Ashdod in response to the ongoing massacres in Gaza. At least one projectile reportedly landed, causing material damage but no casualties.
