Five Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza in past few hours

Five Palestinian journalists have been killed in different locations across Gaza in the past few hours, the Gaza government media office has said.

In a statement, the media office said that the new fatalities brought to 158 the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The government media office and human rights organisations have warned multiple times that the Israeli army has been deliberately targeting Palestinian journalists since the start of the war on Gaza to prevent the reporting of its "crimes" in the region.

According to data and statistics from the International Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based NGO, the war on Gaza has become "the bloodiest for journalists" since the committee began documenting journalist killings worldwide in 1992.

Highest levels of violence

Last February, the International Center for Journalists, a Washington-based NGO, announced that the war on Gaza had seen the highest levels of violence against journalists in 30 years.

The organisation called on Israel to stop killing journalists and to investigate incidents of their deaths at the hands of its forces.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.