Cameraman and Journalist Killed by Israeli Airstrike in Gaza
A cameraman and journalist were killed in Gaza City by an Israeli airstrike this week.
Ramy El Rify and reporter Ismail al-Ghoul both worked for Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV when they were killed by an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday in a targeted attack.
The pair were near the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh along with other media after Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran earlier that day.
According to The Washington Post, Rifi and Ghoul were preparing a report for Al Jazeera when an Israeli aircraft arrived at the house and fired a missile.
The first strike caused no injuries but as Rifi and Ghoul fled the scene, a reconnaissance aircraft chased their car and struck them directly with a second missile.
The attack also killed a passing boy named as 16-year-old Khaled Al-Shawa whose body was seen next to his bicycle.
Israel Makes Claims About the Journalist
The Israeli military confirmed the killings yesterday saying it had eliminated Ghoul in an airstrike claiming he was a Hamas operative who had been part of the October 7 attack on Israel.
Al Jazeera has refuted the “baseless allegations” saying Israel has made them “without providing any proof, documentation, or video.”
Israel tells Reuters that Ghoul was a member of the elite Nukhba unit whose role was to instruct Hamas operatives on how to record operations, including attacks on Israeli troops. There is no word or suggestion that Rify was a Hamas operative.
“His [Ghoul’s] activities in the field were a vital part of Hamas’ military activity,” Israel says in a statement.
Al Jazeera says Ghoul had been employed since November 2023 and that his only profession was a journalist. The network adds that he had previously been arrested and detained by Israeli forces in March before being released, which it said “debunks and refutes their false claim of his affiliation with any organization.”
The Hamas-operated Gaza government media office says the deaths of Rifi and Ghoul raise the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire since October 7 to 165.
