Israel killed an Al-Aqsa TV cameraman and injured one of the station’s reporters yesterday following an air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Anadolu Agency reported.
Al-Aqsa TV wrote on Telegram that cameraman, Mohammed Al-Tanani, was killed, and reporter, Tamer Labad, was injured near the Abu Sharkh roundabout in Jabalia. It did not specify the severity of Labad’s injuries.
Al-Aqsa TV reported that Israeli warplanes targeted their news team with missiles in northern Gaza. They also stated that “the occupation forces not only targeted the team but also prevented ambulances from reaching them.”
Since last Sunday, the Israeli occupation army has intensified its “extermination” operations in Jabalia and its refugee camp, including imposing a land blockade, committing massacres against civilians, expanding house demolitions, and forcibly displacing residents. This escalation is part of Israel’s broader genocide against Gaza, which began on 7 October 2023.
READ: Hamas condemns Israel’s destruction of northern Gaza
This marks the third Israeli assault on Jabalia since the start of the genocide. While the Israeli occupation army claims that its actions in Jabalia are part of a “military operation to prevent Hamas from regaining strength in the area,” the assault has been accompanied by a fierce campaign on the eastern and western regions of northern Gaza, described by Palestinian officials as the “most violent” since last May. Israel’s objective, they say, is to empty the north of its population.
In September, Haaretz newspaper revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government are preparing for the next phase of the war on Gaza, which includes “preparations for settlement and the annexation of northern Gaza.”
This was highlighted in an analysis by the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief, Aluf Benn, who said: “Israel is entering the second phase of the war on Gaza, during which it will try to complete its control over northern Gaza up to the Nitzarim axis [an area established by the Israeli army in the central Gaza Strip, separating the north from the south].”