By Nour Abuaisha and Rania Abu Shamala
GAZA CITY, Palestine /ISTANBUL (AA) – Two more Palestinian journalists were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, raising the overall death toll since October 2023 to 208, local authorities said on Monday.
Gaza’s government media office said Hossam Shabat, a correspondent for Qatar-based Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, was killed in an Israeli strike in northern Gaza.
Mohammed Mansour, a reporter for Palestine Today TV, was also killed in another airstrike that struck his apartment in the southern city of Khan Younis. His wife and child were also killed in the attack, the broadcaster confirmed in a statement.
The media office held Israel, the US, and their allies, including the UK, Germany, and France, fully responsible for what it described as “a brutal crime.”
It appealed to the international community and relevant institutions to exert meaningful pressure to stop what it called an “ongoing genocide” and to ensure protection for journalists and media workers.
The Israeli army launched a surprise aerial campaign on the Gaza Strip on March 18, killing at least 730 people and injuring nearly 1,200 others despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 113,200 injured in a brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza since October 2023.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November 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.