New York, June 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces Israel’s strike on a hospital courtyard in central Gaza on Thursday, which killed three journalists and critically injured three others, 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 editor Suleiman Hajjaj and camera operator Ismail Baddah of Palestine Today TV, a channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Ahmed Qalaja, a camera operator with Qatari-funded Al-Araby TV, later died from his injuries on June 6.
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.”
On June 7, Avichay Adraee, IDF spokesperson for Arabic Media, published a statement on his Facebook page acknowledging the targeting of Hajjaj and Samir Al-Rifai, a former office worker at the local, privately owned Shams News Agency who was also killed, claiming they were members of the Islamic Jihad movement who were acting “as if they were journalists.”
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 two other journalists with Al-Araby TV: reporter Islam Badr and camera operator Imam Badr.
“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.
“Qalaja 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 Israeli Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk to ask about the targeting of journalists but did not immediately receive a response.
Editor’s note: The headline and text have been updated to include the death of a third journalist. The headline was later corrected to update the number injured. The text was also updated to include a comment from an IDF spokesperson and to correct the spelling of Qalaja’s name and the role of Hajjaj.