Israeli strikes kill journalist and child across Gaza, say reports

Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least nine people across the Gaza Strip, including a child and an Al Jazeera journalist, in a single day of violence that underscored how precarious civilian life remained even after the ceasefire.

An airstrike hit an apartment building in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood, killing four people, among them two women and a child, and wounding several others. The Israeli military said it had struck a militant there, but it did not provide evidence in the report to support that claim. Elsewhere, a woman was shot and killed in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, while another airstrike in Khan Younis in the south killed at least one person and wounded eight more.

Later in the day, an airstrike hit the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, including Ahmed Wishah, a journalist who worked for Al Jazeera. The network said Wishah was its 12th journalist killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023. Al Jazeera later described him as kind and principled in follow-up coverage, a reminder that each name in the toll is also a colleague, a witness and a record-keeper.

Wishah’s death landed in a broader press-freedom crisis that has made independent verification of the war increasingly difficult. The Committee to Protect Journalists said on June 11 that at least 263 journalists and media workers had been killed since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 2023. The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate called for accountability, while Al Jazeera condemned the killing. Israel has often accused targeted journalists of militant ties without showing evidence, and Hamas and Al Jazeera denied any affiliation for Wishah.

The strikes also highlighted how the war’s violence has outlasted the ceasefire in all but name. The ceasefire halted major fighting between Hamas and Israel, but it did not end Israeli attacks, and Gaza’s health ministry says more than 1,010 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since it took effect. With civilians still being hit and journalists still being killed, the conflict is not only taking lives; it is also eroding the world’s ability to independently see and verify what is happening in Gaza.