Gaza [Palestine], November 20: The head of a prominent media institution in Gaza and two other journalists were killed during the weekend in Israel's offensive in the territory, their relatives said on Sunday, adding to the dozens of reporters who have died in the six-week conflict.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the weekend deaths raised to 48 the number of journalists and media workers it had confirmed killed in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli offensive.
The CPJ, whose list covers journalists killed on both sides of the conflict although most have been in Gaza, said it seeks at least two sources to verify each death. It said its list of those killed comprised 43 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese.
"Journalists across the region are making great sacrifices to cover this heart-breaking conflict. Those in Gaza, in particular, have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll and face exponential threats," Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in an email to Reuters.
On Sunday, BelalJadallah, a journalist and head of the board of the Press House-Palestine, a non-governmental organisation, was killed and his pharmacist brother-in-law was seriously wounded, his sister and other relatives told Reuters.
Jadallah told his sister earlier on Sunday he was heading out of Gaza City towards the south. He was killed in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, said his sister, who added that people who found him and took him to a medical centre where he was declared dead said he had been killed by an Israeli tank shell.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation