Israel kills Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza

An Israeli strike on Gaza killed an Al Jazeera journalist on Sunday, the Qatar-based channel reported, amid Tel Aviv’s ongoing war on the Palestinian territory.

“Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed al-Louh was killed today, Sunday, in an Israeli bombardment,” the network’s Arabic-language website reported, adding the strike targeted Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israel’s military, when contacted by AFP for comment, said it is “looking into the reports”.

Since the start of the war in the Palestinian territory on October 7 last year, Al Jazeera has aired continuous on-the-ground reporting on the effects of Israel’s brutal assault.

The global channel, since before the war, has been the focus of long-running feud with the Israeli government which has repeatedly accused journalists from Al Jazeera of links to Hamas or its ally Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied these accusations and said Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Louh is the fifth Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since the war in Gaza began and the network’s office in the territory has been bombed.

In September, Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera‘s office in the West Bank, with Israel’s military saying the Ramallah bureau had been “used to incite terror” and “support terrorist activities”.

Al Jazeera called the Israeli raid “a criminal act” and an attack on press freedom.

In April, the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the banning of foreign media broadcasts deemed harmful to state security.

Based on this law, Israel’s government on May 5 approved the decision to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel and close its offices.

Israel has killed other Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza including Hamza al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael al-Dahdouh. He was killed alongside Mustafa Thuraya.

Wael al-Dahdouh was also injured by an Israeli airstrike while he was covering its war on Gaza and his  cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed.