Al Jazeera journalists killed in Israeli strike near al-Shifa hospital

Five Al Jazeera journalists were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent housing reporters outside Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the latest in a series of deadly attacks on news crews covering the Gaza conflict. The strike, which also killed three photographers and an assistant, underscores the peril journalists face in war zones and renews international calls for protection of the press as battles unfold around the devastated enclave. With this incident, the toll of journalists killed in Gaza has risen to well over 230, reflecting the high risk and the heavy restrictions that complicate independent reporting from the territory.

The Al Jazeera team was sheltering in a journalists’ tent near the hospital when the blast occurred. The network described the killings as a deliberate attempt to silence voices reporting from Gaza, noting the reporters had been among Gaza’s bravest observers of the humanitarian crisis. Israel’s military has asserted that it targeted a Hamas operative who allegedly posed as a journalist, a claim rejected by Al Jazeera and by various rights groups as unverified and indicative of broader disputes over how casualty figures and roles are presented in...