Gaza: Occupation burns Palestinian journalist alive, raising death toll of media workers to 210 in ‘deadliest ever’ war on journalists
The Zionist occupation continues to target journalists in the war-torn Gaza Strip, with a Palestinian journalist tragically burned alive after a bombing of a tent housing journalists near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis early on Monday.
In videos circulating the internet, journalist Hilmi Al-Faqaawi was on fire after his tent was struck by the occupation forces. His colleagues tried to rescue him, but to no avail.
Another video captures the haunting scene of the journalist’s charred body, wrapped in a blanket, as it was carried by people.
The bombing also killed journalist Yousef al-Khazindar. Meanwhile, journalists Ahmed Mansour, Hassan Islayh, Ahmed al-Agha, Mohammed Fayeq, Abdullah al-Attar, Ihab al-Bardini, Mahmoud Awad, Majed Qudaih, and Ali Islayh were injured, with some in serious condition, according to Wafa news agency.
The Quds News Network showed footage of journalists Hassan Eslaih and Ihab al-Bardini on hospital beds, the latter “struck by shrapnel in the head, which exited through his eye”, while Ahmad Mansour was reportedly fighting for his life after suffering “severe burns”.
Burning civilians alive is not unprecedented for the Zionist occupation, as demonstrated by the airstrike on a campsite next to Al-Aqsa Hospital in October of last year, resulting in the horrific deaths of many civilians who were burned alive.
“We will continue to deliver the message and convey the truth to the whole world. This is our humanitarian duty,” said fellow journalist Abd Shaat, who added that they were woken by the strike to find the nearby tent of their colleagues on fire.
Faqawi’s martyrdom raised the number of journalists killed by the occupation forces in Gaza to more than 210 since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
“We appeal to the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Journalists Union, and all press organizations worldwide to condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza,” the Gaza government media office said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the killing of Faqawi as an act of “extra-judicial killing” aimed at scaring off reporters and stopping media coverage.
The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs has said “Israel’s” war on Gaza is now the “deadliest ever” for media workers, according to its Costs of War project.
A report, titled News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World, indicated that since October 2023, “Israel” had “killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined”.
“In 2023, a journalist or media worker was, on average, killed or murdered every four days. In 2024, it was once every three days,” said the report.
“Most reporters harmed or killed, as is the case in Gaza, are local journalists.”
Citing the Costs of War study, journalist and author of “The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World”, Antony Lowenstein, told Al Jazeera that “Israel” is engaged in “deliberate targeting of journalists” and that the number of media workers killed in the enclave is now “greater than that of all conflicts in the last 100 years combined”.
In parallel, at least 57 more Palestinians were martyred in the latest occupation’s airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, pushing up the overall death toll to 50,752 since October 2023, the Health Ministry said on Monday. Meanwhile, the Government Media Office updated its toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
The ministry statement said that another 137 injured individuals were transferred to hospitals in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of injuries to 115,475.
