Al Jazeera has condemned the killing of one of its Palestinian journalists in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip, describing it as a deliberate and targeted crime.
Mohammed Wishah, a correspondent for the Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, and one other person were killed in a drone strike on a vehicle in Gaza City on Wednesday, the Qatar-based network and local health officials said.
The Israeli military alleged that Wishah was a Hamas terrorist and said it carried out the strike because he posed a threat to its forces in the area.
There was no immediate response from Al Jazeera, but both the network and Hamas have previously denied that Wishah was affiliated with the armed group.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also said it condemned the killing of Wishah in the strongest possible terms.
He is the 11th Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since the start of the war in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in place for six months.
Witnesses said Wishah was travelling in a vehicle with another Palestinian along the coastal road west of Gaza City when it was hit by a missile fired by an Israeli drone. Videos posted online in the aftermath showed the vehicle engulfed in flames.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that its troops targeted Wishah and accused him of being a key terrorist in Hamas' rocket and weapons production headquarters who operated under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist. It said he was actively involved in planning attacks against IDF troops, and posed a concrete threat to forces in the area. As evidence, it cited a February 2024 post from the IDF's Arabic spokesman, which included photos that he said showed Wishah operating weapons, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
At the time, Al Jazeera and Hamas denied Wishah had any affiliation with the group. A statement issued by Al Jazeera on Wednesday said it strongly condemns the heinous crime of targeting and killing its correspondent.
Al Jazeera also affirmed it would pursue all necessary legal action to prosecute those responsible for the killing of its correspondents and staff in Gaza, and to seek justice for them and for all fallen journalists. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) highlighted that Wishah was among more than 220 journalists killed in two and a half years by the Israeli forces in Gaza, at least 70 of whom were killed in the context of performing their duties.
International news outlets rely on local reporters within Gaza, as Israel does not allow foreign media to send journalists into the territory.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in more than 72,310 deaths, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
The CPJ noted that two additional journalists, Ghada Dayekh from radio station Sawt al-Farah and Suzan Khalil from Al-Manar TV, were also killed in recent Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
Journalists are being killed at a pace and scale that should shock the conscience of the world. These are not isolated tragedies; they reflect a systematic failure to uphold the most basic protections owed to civilian journalists under international law, said the CPJ's regional director, Sara Qudah, in a statement.
