afp | According to the Hamas authorities, three journalists were killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, including a freelancer for the AFP news agency. The three men were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Sahra region southwest of the city of Gaza, said the Civil Defense, which is controlled by the radical Islamic group Hamas. The Israeli army said it targeted three suspects who were piloting “a Hamas drone.”
According to the army statement, Israeli soldiers identified several suspects “operating a Hamas-linked drone in the center of the Gaza Strip.” The drone posed a threat to the soldiers. The Israeli armed forces therefore “precisely attacked” the suspects who activated them. Details about this would be checked. The military did not provide any evidence.
Hamas Civil Defense gave the names of those killed as Anas Ghneim, Mohammed Salah Kashta and Abdul Rauf Schaath. Schaath has had several times since 2024 Photo and video journalist for AFP worked. He was not working for AFP at the time of the attack; his last report on behalf of the news agency was published on Monday.
AFP said the news agency mourned Schaath, who would be remembered as a “kind colleague with a gentle sense of humor and an extremely committed journalist.” The AFP also called for “a comprehensive and transparent investigation into his death,” it said.
Attacked “during a humanitarian mission.”
In the past two years Far too many local journalists killed in Gaza “while foreign journalists remain unable to enter the area freely,” AFP added.
An eyewitness told AFP at the scene that the three men were using a drone to film a humanitarian aid distribution carried out by an Egyptian organization when a car accompanying them was targeted by an airstrike. Hamas Civil Defense spoke of an Israeli drone attack on “a civilian vehicle.”
The spokesman for the Egyptian Relief Committee said that one of the organization’s vehicles was attacked “during a humanitarian mission.” This led to “the death of three people”. All of the organization’s vehicles are provided with the committee’s logo.
The organization Reporters Without Borders said it was “deeply outraged” by the incident: “This isolated attack on journalists who were identified as such because of their equipment could indicate a targeted action and constitute a war crime,” said Martin Roux, head of RSF’s crisis team, according to a statement. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also said it was “horrified”.
The Palestinian journalists’ union strongly condemned the attack. The incident was part of a “systematic and deliberate policy by the Israeli occupying power to target Palestinian journalists.”
Eight more people killed
According to a count by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), between December 1, 2024 and December 1, 2025 at least 29 Palestinian journalists killed in the Gaza Strip. For the third time in a row, Israel was responsible for the most journalists killed in the world. According to its own information, RSF only considers cases in which the organization is convinced that those affected have been victims of violence or oppression in direct connection with their journalistic activities.
Meanwhile, eight more people were killed in Israeli strikes in the area on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health. There has been a ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since October. It came into force two years after the Islamist Palestinian organization attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.