Three journalists killed in Israeli airstrike in Gaza, including a cameraman working with News themezone

An Israeli airstrike killed three journalists in Gaza on Wednesday, the territory’s civil defense agency said. One of those killed, Abed Shaat, had worked for years as a cameraman for News themezone and other media outlets.

Authorities identified the other two murdered journalists as Mohammed Salah Qashta and Anas Ghneim, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported. Shaat had also been a regular contributor to the News, but the agency claimed he was not working for them at the time.

Civil defense officials said the three were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Zahra area, southwest of Gaza City.

The Israel Defense Forces issued a statement saying that troops “identified several suspects operating a Hamas-affiliated drone in the central Gaza Strip, in a manner that posed a threat to their security,” and then “attacked the suspects who activated the drone.” The IDF said the details of the incident are being reviewed.

According to a witness, the journalists were using a drone to take images of aid distribution by the Egyptian Aid Committee in the Gaza Strip when an attack targeted a vehicle accompanying them, News reported.

The Egyptian aid group confirmed that one of its vehicles was attacked by Israel in an attack that killed three people.

“A vehicle belonging to the Egyptian Committee was attacked during a humanitarian mission, resulting in the martyrdom of three people,” said Mohammed Mansour, spokesman for the Egyptian Aid Committee in the Gaza Strip, adding that all vehicles belonging to the group “carry the committee’s logo.”

“The Israeli army criminally attacked this vehicle” when the individuals were filming the Netzarim camp, Mansour said.

Abed Shaat regularly anchored news for News themezone from the city of Khan Yunis during the war in Gaza, and even sent a video from the back of an ambulance on one occasion when he was injured.

He was 30 years old and had gotten married just two weeks earlier.

In an email sent to News themezone staff Wednesday, colleagues in London remembered Shaat as “a courageous journalist” who was “deeply loved by all who knew or worked with him.”

“His work was distinguished by its technical prowess under the most unimaginable circumstances,” said News themezone London producer Kamal Afzali. He called Shaat “an eyewitness to extreme pain with the superhuman power to document it.”

After the ceasefire came into effect in October, Shaat began working with the Egyptian Humanitarian Committee in the Gaza Strip, where he was responsible for photographing all humanitarian activities and relief operations on behalf of the committee.

The Palestinian Journalists Union condemned the attack as part of a “systematic and deliberate policy followed by the Israeli occupation to intentionally target Palestinian journalists.”

Israeli forces have killed at least 466 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect, according to the Hamas-controlled territory’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli military said militants killed three of its soldiers during the same period.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said eight other Palestinians were also killed in Israeli strikes on the territory on Wednesday, making it one of the deadliest days since the ceasefire began, the News reported.