An Israeli drone strike killed Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah on Wednesday when it hit the car he was traveling in on al-Rashid Street west of Gaza City, setting the vehicle on fire. Wishah was a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher in Gaza.
Al Jazeera Media Network said it strongly condemned what it called the killing of its correspondent, saying Wishah had joined the network in 2018. The broadcaster said the strike was not a random act but a deliberate attack intended to intimidate journalists and silence the voice of truth.
The killing came as the Gaza Government Media Office said at least 262 journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023. The office also said the Israeli military has committed about 2,000 violations since the ceasefire took effect nearly six months ago, while Gaza's Health Ministry says at least 733 Palestinians have been killed and 2,034 injured in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire.
Ibrahim al-Khalili said the situation is getting much more dire in light of what he called ongoing Israeli military ceasefire violations, adding that it is nearly six months since the US-brokered ceasefire came into effect and the violations continue, targeting journalists like Wishah. The backdrop is a war that has killed more than 72,000 people and injured over 171,000 others in the Strip since October 2023, with Israel accused of targeting journalists from the start and of benefiting from impunity for earlier killings in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank, according to UN experts.
Wishah's death adds to a toll that has become one of the defining and most contested features of the war: the work of reporting from Gaza is being carried out under fire, and the risks for journalists remain as immediate as the strikes themselves.
