Journalist killed in Israeli strike on Gaza: Report

An Israeli strike on Gaza killed an Al Jazeera journalist on Sunday, the Qatar-based channel reported, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas.

"Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed al-Louh was killed today, Sunday, in an Israeli bombardment," the network's Arabic-language website reported, adding the strike targeted Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

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Gaza's civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed Louh had been killed in the strike on the Nuseirat camp that also claimed the lives of three members of Bassal's rescue agency.

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Bassal told AFP a warplane had "targeted the Civil Defence site in Nuseirat camp".

Israel's military, when contacted by AFP for comment, said it is "looking into the reports".

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Since the start of the war in the Palestinian territory on October 7 last year, Al Jazeera has aired continuous on-the-ground reporting on the effects of Israel's campaign.

The global channel, since before the war, has been the focus of long-running feud with the Israeli government which has repeatedly accused journalists from Al Jazeera of links to Hamas or its ally Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied these accusations and said Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Louh is the fifth Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since the war in Gaza began, and the network's office in the territory has been bombed.

In September, Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera's office in the West Bank, with Israel's military saying the Ramallah bureau had been "used to incite terror" and "support terrorist activities".

Al Jazeera called the Israeli raid "a criminal act" and an attack on press freedom.

In April, the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the banning of foreign media broadcasts deemed harmful to state security.

Based on this law, Israel's government on May 5 approved the decision to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel and close its offices.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists earlier on Sunday said the Israel-Hamas war "has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists".

The watchdog said CPJ's preliminary investigations showed at least 137 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since October 7, 2023.