Israeli strike kills another Palestinian journalist in Gaza, death toll rises to 220

By Rasha Evrensel and Betul Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) – An Israeli airstrike killed another Palestinian journalist in Gaza on Sunday, pushing up the overall death toll since October 2023 to 220, local authorities said.

Hassan Majdi Abu Warda, director of the Barq Gaza news agency, was killed, along with a number of his family members, in the strike that targeted their home in Jabalia Nazla neighborhood in northern Gaza, the government media office said.

The office condemned Israel’s systematic assassination of Palestinian reporters in Gaza, and called on human rights and media institutions to “condemn these systematic crimes against Gaza journalists.”

Despite international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 53,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.