New York, June 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces Israel’s strike on a hospital courtyard in central Gaza, which killed two journalists and a media worker and critically injured four other journalists, and calls for international action to stop Israel targeting journalists based on unsubstantiated terrorism claims.
“These are not isolated incidents, but systematic attacks by Israel on the media. This disturbing and deliberate pattern must end,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “The killing of journalists in a hospital courtyard on the holy day of Yawm Al-Arafah — preceding Eid al-Adha — underscores the relentless dangers facing the media in Gaza.”
The drone strike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital courtyard killed correspondent Suleiman Hajjaj and camera operator Ismail Baddah of Palestine Today TV, a channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group, and Samir al-Rifai, an administrator for the local, privately owned Shams News Agency.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Telegram that they had “precisely struck an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was operating in a command and control center in the yard of the Al-Ahli Hospital.”
Palestine Today TV described the killings as a “double war crime” for “direct targeting” its journalists and a hospital, both protected under international law.
Palestine Today TV correspondent Emad Daloul was also injured, as well as three journalists with Qatari-funded Al-Araby TV: reporter Islam Badr and camera operators Imam Badr and Ahmed Qulaja.
“The strike happened at around 10:20 a.m. with a single missile fired by an Israeli drone directly at a group of journalists who were sitting in the courtyard, working on their laptops,” Islam Badr, who started filming minutes after his right leg was hit, told CPJ.
“Qulaja was critically injured by shrapnel,” added Islam Badr, brother to Imam Badr.
Al-Mayadeen TV journalist Akram Daloul, a relative of injured Emad Daloul, told CPJ that the correspondent’s condition was serious because he had previously undergone a kidney transplant.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk to ask if the military was aware of the presence of journalists in the area and if they were deliberately targeted but did not immediately receive a response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.