A PALESTINIAN photojournalist was killed on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on central Khan Younis in southern Gaza, in yet another attack targeting media workers since the start of the genocide.
Journalist and photographer Mahmoud Issam Wadi was killed by an Israeli drone fired on an area in central Khan Younis.
Another journalist, Mohammad Abdel Fattah Mohammad Islayyeh, 40, was wounded by shrapnel in the same attack.
Earlier in the day, medical teams reported the killing of Shaker Atef al-Awawda from Al-Bureij refugee camp after he was targeted by an Israeli quadcopter drone east of the camp.
In Gaza City, a young man was shot by an Israeli drone, while civil defence crews evacuated five wounded civilians and dozens of families trapped by Israeli occupation forces’ (IOF) fire in eastern Gaza, marking yet another violation of the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on 10th October.
Gaza’s Civil Defence said its teams successfully rescued five injured individuals, including two women and two children, from the Sanfour Junction area.
Fathi Abu Hussein and his two children were killed when Israeli occupation forces bombed their tent in Mawasi, Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night.
Their funeral was held yesterday morning in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
The agency added that dozens of families in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood were evacuated overnight after IOF tanks and drones surrounded residential blocks and opened heavy fire.
The Israeli drones fired projectiles that ignited fires in homes near the Sanfour Junction east of Al-Tuffah, as IOF expanded the boundaries of the so-called ‘yellow line,’ which now places more than 53 per cent of Gaza’s landmass under Israeli control based on the current agreement.
In the south, IOF machinery opened fire east of Khan Younis, while Israeli artillery shelled the city’s eastern areas alongside repeated airstrikes.
Israeli aircraft also fired heavily on Rafah City in the early morning hours.
Israeli violations of the ceasefire continued for the 53rd consecutive day, with multiple areas across the Strip experiencing ongoing military escalation.
Since the ceasefire agreement took effect on 10th October, 359 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women, children and elderly civilians. Another 903 have been wounded in varying degrees.
The Government Media Office (GMO) announced on Tuesday that the number of journalists killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to 257, following the killing of Mahmoud Wadi.
In a press statement, the GMO explained that the death toll among journalists has continued to climb since the start of the war on Gaza, emphasising that journalists are being targeted systematically.
The statement condemned ‘the deliberate killings and assassinations’ of Palestinian journalists, calling on the International Federation of Journalists, the Federation of Arab Journalists, and media institutions around the world to take a clear stand against these violations.
The GMO also held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the ‘crimes committed against journalists,’ along with the United States administration and other countries supporting the military campaign, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
The statement stressed the urgent need for the international community, as well as journalistic and human rights organisations, to act to hold those responsible accountable before international courts.
It called for effective pressure to stop the Israeli attacks, ensure the protection of journalists and media workers in Gaza, and halt all targeting operations against them.
