Israel Strikes Journalists’ Tent in Gaza; 2 Dead, 8 Injured
By The Committee to Protect Journalists
HAVANA TIMES – Committee to Protect Journalists denounces Israel’s targeted airstrike that hit a media tent in southern Gaza on Monday, killing two journalists and injuring eight others, and calls on the international community to act to stop Israel killing Palestinian journalists.
The airstrike on the tent housing journalists in the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis killed Hilmi al-Faqaawi, a social media manager for pro-Palestinian Islamic Jihad broadcaster Palestine Today TV. Ahmed Mansour, a Palestine Today news agency editor, died that night after sustaining severe burns.
The strike also injured the following journalists:
- Ahmed Al-Agha, BBC Arabic contributor
- Mohammed Fayeq, freelance photojournalist and drone operator
- Abdullah Al-Attar, freelance photographer for Anadolu Agency
- Ihab Al-Bardini, camera operator contributing to U.S. channel ABC
- Mahmoud Awad, Al Jazeera camera operator
- Majed Qudaih, Radio Algerie correspondent
- Ali Eslayeh, photographer for West Bank-based site Alam24
- Abed Shaat, photographer who contributes to Agence France-Presse news agency
The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted Hassan Eslayeh, a freelance photographer who was with Hamas on October 7, 2023. The IDF said Eslayeh, who was injured on April 7, 2025, was a “terrorist” who “participated in the bloody massacre.”
In 2023, the pro-Israeli watchdog HonestReporting published a photo of Eslayeh being kissed by then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, after which CNN, the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies cut ties with the journalist.
“This is not the first time Israel has targeted a tent sheltering journalists in Gaza. The international community’s failure to act has allowed these attacks on the press to continue with impunity, undermining efforts to hold perpetrators accountable,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Sara Qudah. “CPJ calls on authorities to allow the injured, some of whom have sustained severe burns, to be evacuated immediately for treatment and to stop attacking Gaza’s already devastated press corps.”
Footage verified by Reuters news agency showed people trying to douse flames in the tent while other images of someone trying to rescue a journalist in flames were widely shared online.
CPJ’s email to the Israeli Defense Force’s North America Media Desk to request comment did not receive an immediate response.
More than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war.