CNN
—
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed an Al Jazeera photojournalist on Sunday – precisely one yr to the day after an assault killed one among his colleagues.
Ahmad Al-Louh, 39, and 4 different folks have been killed by the strike that focused an workplace of the Civil Defense service in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Camp space, in accordance with Al Awda Hospital, which handled the casualties.
Al Jazeera has condemned the assault, saying Al-Louh was “brutally killed” whereas masking the service’s try to rescue a household that had been severely injured in an earlier bombing.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had focused the Civil Defense places of work in a “exact strike,” claiming the positioning was getting used as a “command-and-control middle” by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who have been planning an “imminent terror assault towards IDF troops.”
It mentioned Al-Louh was amongst these killed within the strike and alleged he was a “terrorist” who had beforehand served with Islamic Jihad. The IDF didn’t present any proof for his or her allegations.
In late July, an IDF strike killed Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, who it accused of being a Hamas member – an allegation the community slammed as “baseless.”
CNN has reached out to Al Jazeera concerning the IDF’s allegations about Al-Louh.
CNN footage reveals ambulances taking the casualties to the hospital. Some of them are nonetheless carrying civil protection vests. It reveals one immobile physique being carried on a blanket getting used as a makeshift stretcher. It additionally reveals Al-Louh’s physique on the ground, press vest draped over him, as folks encompass him. His brother Sajed leans over Al-Louh crying, “Hamada! Oh God,” addressing his deceased brother by nickname.
According to the hospital, the opposite folks killed within the strike have been three Civil Defense staff and one civilian.
A spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense strongly denied the IDF’s declare of a terrorist presence on the website.
“These groups work across the clock to rescue folks. Everyone is aware of that the Civil Defense group is a humanitarian physique that gives providers throughout each peace and struggle to civilians and has no political involvement. The crew was immediately focused,” mentioned Zaki Imad Eddine.
Al Jazeera, which has previously accused Israel of systematically concentrating on its journalists – a cost Israel denies, described Al-Louh’s killing as against the law and mentioned it adopted a sample of assaults by which its staff had been killed or injured by Israeli assaults.
It famous that Al-Louh’s demise coincided with the primary anniversary of the killing of one among its cameramen, Samer Abu Daqqa, who died on December 15, 2023, after sustaining accidents in an Israeli assault on southern Gaza.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Abu Daqqa was the primary Al Jazeera journalist to have been killed within the Israel-Hamas struggle because the October 7 terror assault of 2023. Since then, a string of different journalists with the community have been killed or injured in Gaza, in disputed circumstances.
On Sunday, Al Jazeera prolonged its condolences to Al-Louh’s spouse and household, including that simply days earlier an Israeli strike had destroyed his home within the Da’wa neighborhood of Nuseirat Camp.
The community additionally mentioned it was dedicated to pursuing “all authorized measures to prosecute the perpetrators of those crimes towards journalists” and urged worldwide authorized establishments to take “pressing measures” to carry the Israeli authorities to account and “to place an finish to the concentrating on and killing of journalists.”
Israel’s army has previously mentioned it “takes all operationally possible measures to guard each civilians and journalists” and that it “has by no means and can by no means intentionally goal journalists.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists says the Israel-Gaza struggle has killed extra journalists in a yr than some other battle the group has documented. At least 137 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon because the struggle started, in accordance with the CPJ, making it the deadliest interval for journalists because it started accumulating information in 1992. Of these killed, 129 have been Palestinian. According to Gaza’s authorities media workplace, no less than 196 journalists have been killed.
Mohammad Al Sawalhi, a stringer for CNN in Gaza, mentioned Al-Louh was well-known amongst journalists in Gaza and was typically embedded with the Civil Defense in his capability as a journalist, masking rescue missions.
“He was a really enjoyable particular person to be with, he all the time tried to assist everybody and convey pleasure to everybody’s face,” Al Sawalhi mentioned.
“He had an incredible relationship with all journalists, serving to all of them as a result of he knew central Gaza very nicely.”
Al-Louh was simply one among dozens of individuals killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday.
At least 15 folks have been killed early Sunday when an Israeli airstrike hit a faculty sheltering displaced folks in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, in accordance with the Civil Defense.
Eyewitnesses reported 10 to fifteen charred our bodies after fires attributable to “intensive Israeli bombing” on the Khalil Awida faculty, which was sheltering about 1,500 displaced folks, the Civil Defense mentioned.
The IDF mentioned it had carried out a “focused raid on a terrorist assembly level within the Beit Hanoun space.”
In Deir al Balah, a strike on tents killed 4 folks and a strike on a household dwelling east of Gaza metropolis killed six, in accordance with the Civil Defense.
Meanwhile within the south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis mentioned 12 folks have been killed in an Israeli strike.
CNN has reached out to the IDF for touch upon the strikes.
Correction: This write has been up to date to mirror that the strike that killed Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul was in late July.
