Journalist Killed in Israeli Airstrike, Bringing Total Deaths to Over 135

An Israeli airstrike on Sunday in Gaza killed five people, including 39-year-old photojournalist Ahmad Al-Louh, who worked for Qatar-based Al Jazeera.

The strike targeted an office of the Civil Defense service in the Nuseirat Camp area, central Gaza, where the service was responding to an earlier attack that injured a family.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the attack, claiming the Civil Defense office was used as a "command-and-control center" by the Hamas militant group. The IDF also labeled Ahmad Al-Louh as a “terrorist” with previous ties to the Islamic Jihad movement, though no evidence was presented to support this claim.

Al Jazeera condemned the airstrike, describing Ahmad's death as a brutal killing. This is the fifth Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since the start of the war in Gaza. In September, Israeli forces raided the Al Jazeera office in the West Bank, accusing the bureau of supporting terrorism. Al Jazeera condemned this as an attack on press freedom.

The war has taken a heavy toll on journalists in Gaza. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 137 journalists have been killed in the conflict, including 29 Palestinians, two Israelis, and six Lebanese. The Palestinian Journalists’ Forum later confirmed that the death toll had risen to 195, following the killing of Mohammad Baalousha, a correspondent for Al-Mashhad Channel, in an Israeli airstrike.

In another incident on Sunday, at least 15 people were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted a school sheltering displaced people in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza.