 "Demonstrators raise placards and and light flares during a protest calling for action to release the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza since the 2023 October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, outside the Israeli Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. AFP")
According to Gaza’s civil defence service, nine persons, including journalists, were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, putting the fragile truce in the Palestinian territory at risk.
Following the reported attacks, which were the bloodiest since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19, Hamas accused Israel of a “blatant violation” of the agreement, which mainly ended more than 15 months of conflict.
The first phase of the truce expired on March 1 without agreement on the next steps, although both Israel and Hamas have refrained from resuming hostilities.
A senior Hamas official announced Tuesday that new discussions had begun in Doha, with Israel also sending representatives.
According to a statement from his office, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed his negotiating team “to prepare for the continuation” of indirect discussions with Hamas on the truce.
On Saturday, Gaza civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal informed AFP that “nine martyrs have been transferred (to hospital), including several journalists and a number of workers from the Al-Khair Charitable Organisation”.
The murders were described as “a result of the occupation (Israel) targeting a vehicle with a drone in the town of Beit Lahia, coinciding with artillery shelling on the same area” .
According to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, “nine martyrs and several injured, including critical cases” were sent to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.
Israel’s military said it hit “two terrorists… operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area of Beit Lahia”.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Later, a number of additional terrorists collected the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle. The IDF struck the terrorists.”
‘Systematic targeting’
Israel has carried out near-daily air strikes in Gaza since early March, often targeting what the military said were militants planting explosives.
“The occupation has committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
A separate Hamas statement called the attack “a dangerous escalation”, adding that it “reaffirms (Israel’s) intent to backtrack on the ceasefire agreement and intentionally obstruct any opportunity to complete the agreement and carry out the prisoner swap”.
During the truce’s initial six-week phase, militants released 33 hostages, including eight who were dead, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons.
Hamas said Saturday that “the ball is in Israel’s court” after offering to release an Israeli-US hostage and return the bodies of four others as part of the truce talks.
‘Very bad bet’
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said that among those killed on Saturday were an editor and three photo journalists. One was a drone photography specialist, according to the civil defence agency.
The syndicate’s deputy head in Gaza, Tahseen al-Astal, told AFP that the attack targeted an Al-Khair charity vehicle, where the journalists were “preparing reports and documentaries on the work of charitable organisations during the month of Ramadan”.
Two Al-Khair members were also among those identified as killed, including a spokesperson, the civil defence agency said.
“This heinous crime comes in the context of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists,” a Palestinian Journalists Syndicate statement said.
“The continuation of these brutal attacks against journalists constitutes a war crime and a blatant violation of international laws, especially the Geneva Convention, which guarantees the protection of journalists during conflicts.”
In November, Reporters without Borders said that more than 140 journalists had been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which sparked the war.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, while Israel’s military retaliation in Gaza killed more than 48,543, according to figures from the two sides.
There are still 58 hostages held in Gaza, 34 of whom the Israeli army has declared dead.
Israel said Friday Hamas had “not budged” in the truce talks and was engaged in “psychological warfare”.
Israel’s ally the United States said Hamas was “making a very bad bet that time is on its side”.
In Tel Aviv, a crowd of several hundred gathered for the weekly protest to demand the release of the remaining Gaza hostages.