Hamas says journalist killed in Gaza strike, Israel claims targeted militant
Hamas and rescuers said an Israeli strike on southern Gaza killed one journalist and wounded nine others on Monday, while the Israeli military reported it targeted a militant posing as a reporter.
The journalist is one of at least 12 people killed in Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory on Monday, according to Gaza's civil defence agency, as the war entered its 19th month.
An air strike hit a tent used by journalists in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, killing two people, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
Nine journalists were wounded in the strike, Bassal added.
The Hamas government media office said journalist Hilmi al-Faqaawi, who worked for a local news agency, was killed in the attack.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry called Faqaawi's killing "part of a growing series of crimes targeting journalists directly, in a systematic attempt to silence the Palestinian voice and erase the truth".
The Palestinian Journalists Protection Center (PJPC) also condemned the attack, saying "the deliberate targeting of journalists constitutes a war crime".
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it "strongly condemns" the strike on the tent sheltering the journalists.
"The endless massacre of journalism in Gaza must stop!" it said in a statement.
The Israeli military meanwhile said its forces had "struck the Hamas terrorist Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih in the Khan Yunis area" overnight, without specifying whether he had been killed.
The military claimed Aslih operated "under the guise of a journalist and owns a press company."
It said Aslih had "infiltrated Israeli territory and participated in the murderous massacre carried out by the Hamas terrorist organisation on October 7th".
"During the massacre, he documented and uploaded footage of looting, arson, and murder to social media."
The Hamas government media office and the PJPC named Aslih among the nine wounded in the Khan Yunis strike.
- 'Trapped beneath rubble' -
In central Gaza, Bassal said an Israeli air strike hit three houses in Deir el-Balah city and killed at least seven people.
"Some people remain trapped beneath the rubble," the spokesman said.
Deir el-Balah was the target of an Israeli evacuation order late Sunday, warning residents of imminent attacks in response to a rocket salvo that the military said was fired from the area.
Further north, Bassal said a strike hit "a group of civilians" in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood, killing three people.
The civil defence spokesman said there was also ongoing artillery shelling across Gaza and home demolitions in Rafah, on the territory's southern border with Egypt.
Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.
According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 1,391 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,752.
Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
bur-az-jd/jsa
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
24 minutes ago
- Axios
Trump's pro-Bibi pressure campaign
President Trump is pressuring Israel to halt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial, dangling an implicit threat to suspend military assistance if the "witch hunt" continues. Why it matters: U.S. presidents have long treated aid to Israel as a sacrosanct, bipartisan commitment. Trump's unprecedented intervention appeared to tie the security of 10 million Israelis to the criminal prosecution of one man. Trump's Truth Social post — in which he claimed the "political witch hunt" would interfere with negotiations with Iran and Hamas — was his second in three days about Netanyahu's trial. It followed a decision by Israeli judges to reject Netanyahu's request to delay the hearing by two weeks, defying his argument that foreign policy and national security demands warranted a postponement. What they're saying:"It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu," Trump wrote. "He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran." Trump claimed Netanyahu is "in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back," and questioned how Israel could force its leader "to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING." He then warned: "The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this." The extraordinary statement was widely interpreted as an effort to leverage U.S. military assistance to pressure Israel to cancel the trial. Trump posted again on Truth Social at around 1 a.m. ET Sunday morning, writing "MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!" Netanyahu shared Trump's Saturday post calling for canceling his trial on X: "Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump. Together, we will make the Middle East Great Again!" Reality check: The negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain stalled — in part because of Netanyahu's refusal to commit to ending the war in Gaza. Iran, meanwhile, has yet to indicate it's ready for direct talks with the U.S. It's unclear how Netanyahu's trial would meaningfully interfere with either track. Catch up quick: Netanyahu is standing trial for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases. He's accused of accepting more than $200,000 in gifts from wealthy businessmen, and of granting regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a telecom tycoon in exchange for favorable news coverage. The trial has stretched on for four years, in part due to Netanyahu's repeated legal delay tactics. The former head of Israel's Shin Bet has accused the prime minister of trying to use executive powers to stall the case. Driving the news: On Wednesday, Trump publicly called for Netanyahu's corruption trial to be "cancelled immediately" — or for Netanyahu to be granted a pardon. It was the first time he had made such a direct demand. Trump has rarely spoken publicly about the trial. Just one day earlier, he appeared visibly frustrated with Netanyahu after both Israel and Iran violated a ceasefire brokered by the president. But with that in the rearview mirror, the two leaders are now gearing up for a victory lap over the successful U.S.-Israeli bombing of Iran's nuclear program. Behind the scenes: A White House official told Axios that Trump's first post on Wednesday — written aboard Air Force One — was prompted by a news article he read on his way back to Washington from the NATO summit in The Hague. The official described the post as spontaneous and not coordinated with Netanyahu. "The president read in the article that Bibi has to be in court on Monday and thought it's crazy," the official said. "He identified with what Bibi is going through and decided to write something about it." But in Israel, many saw Trump's move as part of a broader strategy. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the former president shouldn't interfere in a legal proceeding in an independent, sovereign country. "But I guess he is doing it as compensation to Bibi in return for ending the war in Gaza. It sounds like a Trump thing to do," Lapid told Israeli news site Ynet. Between the lines: Netanyahu's warm response only fueled suspicions of coordination. The prime minister — who previously accused Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden of meddling in Israeli politics — praised Trump's intervention and amplified it through official statements and social media posts. "This is Trump's emperor complex at work," former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Axios. "He thinks if he drops bombs on Fordow and gives aid to Israel, he gets to dictate to Israeli judges how to rule. We've probably never seen a more blatant U.S. intervention in Israel's internal affairs. It won't work," Shapiro said. What to watch: The only official with the authority to cancel Netanyahu's trial is Israel's attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara. The odds of her doing so are virtually zero.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump calls for deal on war in Gaza, hostages' return
President Trump on Sunday called for a deal on Israel's war in Gaza and the hostages held in the territory to be released. 'MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT,' Trump said in an early morning post on Truth Social. Trump's push for a deal and the release of the hostages comes after the U.S.'s recent involvement in a conflict between Israel and Iran via strikes on nuclear sites and a ceasefire between the two countries. The war in Gaza began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in which 1,200 people were killed by the group and over 250 people were taken hostage. The Israelis' war in the territory has also killed over 55,000 people, with much of the infrastructure of Gaza destroyed and the amount of supplies needed for survival running thin. The Washington Post reported last Friday that Trump said he believed in the rapid approach of a ceasefire in Gaza. 'I just spoke with some of the people involved,' Trump said, per the Post. 'It's a terrible situation that's going on in Gaza … We think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire.' The U.S. recently vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution urging an 'immediate and permanent' ceasefire in the Gaza Strip due to the measure not including the release of the hostages held by Hamas as a condition for the truce. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
American Military News
an hour ago
- American Military News
Khamenei reemerges in new video, says Iran gave a ‘hard slap' to US, downplays nuclear damage
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared 'victory' over Israel in his first message to the public since a US-brokered cease-fire took effect two days ago. Khamenei, 86, was mostly absent from the public eye during the 12-day war with Israel, issuing only two video messages, with the second on June 19 widely believed to have been recorded in a bunker given the poor production quality. In his new video message, which had noticeably better audio quality than the last one, Khamenei congratulated Iranians on what he described as a 'victory over the fake Zionist regime,' asserting that Israel had been 'almost crippled and crushed under the blows of the Islamic republic.' Referring to the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, he said the 'Americans couldn't do anything important' and accused the United States of 'exaggerating' the damage to 'hide the truth.' US officials have spoken of 'monumental damage' inflicted on Iran's main nuclear facilities, with President Donald Trump saying that 'obliteration is an accurate term' to be used to describe the effects of US bombing of the sites. While a preliminary US intelligence report has cast some doubt on the extent of the damage to three of Iran's main nuclear facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said the US bombing likely resulted in 'very significant' damage to the Fordow uranium enrichment plant, which is dug into a mountain in central Iran. Some analysts have said that Khamenei's lack of visibility signals unprecedented uncertainty about the future of Iran's leadership, prompting speculation about the country's internal stability and the risk of wider repercussions in the Middle East. Iran managed to deliver strong retaliatory strikes that killed over 20 people according to Israeli officials, but Israel killed dozens of key senior Iranian military and scientific personnel, while also hitting many key military sites. Iranian authorities say more than 600 people were killed in Israeli attacks. Neither death toll has been independently verified. Despite the higher number of reported Iranian deaths, the Iranian supreme leader — who appeared tired and spoke haltingly at times — insisted that Iran had scored a victory over the United States, claiming the Americans joined the conflict to help ensure Israel's survival. He said the United States had 'gained nothing from this war' and framed Iran's retaliatory strike against the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar as a 'hard slap.' Khamenei also referenced US President Donald Trump's calls for Iran's 'unconditional surrender' during the course of the war, saying Iran would 'never' surrender. He said Trump's demands showed that Iran's 'enemies' use its nuclear and missile programs as 'excuses' to get Tehran to surrender.
