Gaza journalist killed in alleged Israeli fire

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza and a Palestinian news site said Monday that a journalist was killed by Israeli fire the previous day in the south of the territory.

"Ibrahim Muharab's body was taken to Nasser Hospital", in the southern city of Khan Yunis Monday, the ministry said.

Palestinian Daily News, a website for which Muharab worked, announced his death "following shelling from the Israeli occupation on him and a group of journalists".

It added that Muharab's body was found on Monday morning in Hamad City, a large apartment complex built by Qatar and now in ruins.

Two other journalists who were with Muharab at the time were wounded and sent to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist on the ground reported.

Online videos that AFP could not separately authenticate show an Israeli armoured vehicle advancing towards the Hamad neighbourhood while bullets are being fired.

At least one man wearing a "Press" jacket can be seen running away from the shots before a voice can be heard saying "Ibrahim is wounded, where is he?"

About 30 people gathered on Monday at the hospital to stand around Muharab's body, which was laid on the ground under a white plastic tarpaulin on which a bulletproof jacket marked "Press" was laid like a wreath, AFPTV footage showed.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army declined to comment on this specific case without receiving the geographic coordinates for the location of Muharab's death and his identification card.

"The (Israeli army) has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists," a spokesperson for the army told AFP.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned Muharab's "assassination" and accused the Israeli army of leading an "organised campaign... to kill journalists" in Gaza.

Gaza journalist Ibrahim Qanan, who was at the hospital, accused Israel of "killing the truth by trying to wipe out all traces of transmission towards the outside world of what is happening in the Gaza Strip".

The Israeli army has killed several journalists in Gaza it accused of belonging to Hamas or Islamic Jihad's armed branches.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported Monday that "at least 113 journalists and media workers" have been killed since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7

This constitutes the "deadliest period for journalists since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992."