JOURNALISTS KILLED
Israel has been under mounting pressure both at home and abroad to wrap up its campaign in Gaza, where the war has created a humanitarian crisis and devastated much of the territory.
On Monday, Israeli strikes hit a Gaza hospital, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists working for Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and Reuters, among other outlets.
The United Nations, NGOs and world powers including staunch Israeli allies all expressed shock at the attack.
Netanyahu later expressed regret over what he called a “tragic mishap”, and the Israeli military ordered an initial inquiry into the strikes.
The ongoing war in Gaza has been one of the deadliest for journalists, with around 200 media workers killed over the course of the nearly two-year Israeli assault, according to press watchdogs.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Palestinian militants also hold the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,744 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
