GAZA – Two Al Jazeera correspondents were killed in a reported Israeli airstrike in Al-Shati refugee camp, northern Gaza, on Wednesday, according to the news network, sparking condemnation from advocacy groups and highlighting the dangers for local reporters covering the war.

Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman, Rami Al-Rifi, who lived in the besieged enclave, were killed in an airstrike on their car in the al Shati refugee camp, according to the Qatar-based network. The journalists, both aged 27, were reporting live for much of the day from a location close to the family home of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Tuesday. Al-Ghoul was wearing a press flak vest when he was killed, according to his colleague. He had not seen his wife and two-year-old daughter Zeina, who were displaced in central Gaza, in 10 months. “These days are not like any other,” he said in a post on X in June. “Zeina began running, talking, asking questions… She was growing up without me seeing her.”

A third Palestinian, 16-year-old Khaled Al-Shawa, was also killed in the strike on Wednesday, according to local reporters. Footage on social media filmed in the aftermath of the attack shows his lifeless body sprawled in the street. Al-Shawa was an only child, reporters told CNN. The teenager had been riding his orange bicycle to deliver food for an elderly resident in the local neighborhood, before he was killed, according to Saudi-backed broadcaster Al-Arabiya.

Al Jazeera condemned what it claimed was the “targeted assassination” of its journalists by Israeli forces, claiming the attack was “part of a systematic targeting campaign against the network’s journalists and their families since October 2023.” In a statement to CNN Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli Security Agency alleged Al-Ghoul was a member of Hamas’ military wing and had “participated” in the attack on Israel on October 7.

The IDF alleged that “as part of his role in the military wing, Al-Ghoul instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicizing attacks against IDF troops. His activities in the field were a vital part of Hamas’ military activity.” The IDF did not allege that Al-Ghoul had a direct combat role in its statement to CNN, nor did it address the killing of his colleague Rami al Rifi in the same strike. Al Jazeera denied what it called “baseless allegations made by the Israeli occupation forces in an attempt to justify its deliberate killing of our colleague, journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul, and his companion, cameraman Rami Al-Rifi.”

It said the IDF had made accusations against Al-Ghoul “without providing any proof, documentation or video,” and accused Israel of a “long history of fabrications and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes.”

Al Jazeera bureau chief for Israel and Palestine, Walid Al Omari, said that Israeli forces “had previously arrested (Al-Ghoul) in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza when they invaded it in mid-March. They detained him for twelve hours, then released him unconditionally.” (CNN) …[+]