Turkish broadcaster says reporter badly wounded in Gaza

A Turkish state television journalist was badly wounded and another slightly hurt in Gaza Friday, the TRT channel said, adding that the team had been targeted by an Israeli strike.

"The vehicle of a team from TRT Arabi (TRT's Arabic-language channel) that was preparing to broadcast from the Nuseirat camp... was targeted by an Israeli army strike," the broadcaster said.

"Sami Shahada, a freelance cameraman, was badly wounded," it added.

TRT's chief Zahid Sobaci said Shahada had "lost a foot and is currently in surgery", calling the attack "Israeli brutality".

The channel reported that other journalists were wounded in the central Gaza refugee camp.

Lying on the floor of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza city of Deir El Balah, Sami Shahada told an AFP reporter that he was "far from the danger zone. I was even surrounded by people and journalists."

"We were shooting when a strike targeted us, I don't know if it was missile or a tank. I saw that my leg was amputated," he recounted.

"I was wearing a press vest and helmet and it was clear even for the blind that I am a journalist."

Speaking to journalists in Ankara, presidential office spokesman Fahrettin Altun said that "Israel targeted, deliberately and willingly committed this massacre."

Altun reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas had discussed the strike in a phone call.

"No matter what happens, we will continue to stand firm against Israel's barbaric attacks on Gaza and Israel will pay the price for this cruelty," Altun reported Erdogan as saying.

A tally from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 95 media workers had been killed in fighting since October 7, 90 of them Palestinians.

At least 16 more have been wounded.

Fighting between Israel and Hamas erupted with the militant group's October 7 attack that killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP toll based on official figures.

Of more than 250 people kidnapped, 129 remain in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead, according to Israeli officials.

Israel's Gaza campaign to destroy Hamas has killed 33,634 people in the territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.