Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, including two 13-year-old boys and three journalists, in violence that threatens to further undermine a three-month-old ceasefire.
Gaza Violence Claims Lives of Journalists and Civilians
Palestinian health officials reported that an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinian journalists who were traveling in a car to film a newly established displacement camp in the Netzarim area of central Gaza.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate stated the reporters were “carrying out a humanitarian, journalistic mission to film and document the suffering of civilians.”
The journalists were identified as Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat and Anas Ghneim. Shaat was a regular contributor to Agence France-Presse as a photo and video journalist, although the agency noted he was not on assignment at the time of the strike.
Local journalists indicated their work was sponsored by the Egyptian Relief Committee, which oversees Egypt’s relief operations in Gaza. Mohammed Mansour, a spokesperson for the committee, said the vehicle was known to the Israeli military.
In separate incidents, two 13-year-old boys were killed in different parts of Gaza. In one strike, a boy, his father and a 22-year-old man were struck by Israeli drones on the eastern edge of the Bureij refugee camp, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah.
In another incident, Moatsem al-Sharafy, a 13-year-old boy, was shot dead by Israeli troops while collecting firewood in the eastern town of Bani Suheila, according to Nasser hospital. Footage shared online showed the boy’s father grieving over his body at the hospital.
The Israeli military said it ordered the strike after its soldiers “identified several suspects who operated a drone affiliated with Hamas” in central Gaza. The military stated that after identifying the threat, they “precisely struck the suspects who activated the drone,” and that the details of the incident are under examination.
Reporters Without Borders reported that Israeli forces have killed at least 29 Palestinian journalists in Gaza between December 2024 and December 2025, and nearly 220 journalists since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. Other groups estimate the toll to be higher.
Safaa al-Sharafy, Moatsem al-Sharafy’s mother, told the Associated Press that her son went out to gather firewood so she could cook. She said, “He went out in the morning, hungry. He told me he’d go quickly and come back.”
Health authorities report that Israeli forces have killed at least 466 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect in October.
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