Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Wishah killed in Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp

Casualties across Gaza

Medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported that 11 people were killed on Saturday in Israeli army bombings, including a journalist and four members of the same family, even as a fragile ceasefire has supposedly been in place since 10 October 2025. The deadliest strike hit a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Wishah and two others. Another strike overnight Friday to Saturday on a property in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City killed four members of the Safadi family, parents and their two daughters, according to civil defence officials.

The Safadi family were asleep at around 02:00 when their home was hit. A relative, Nael al-Safadi, said they had no connection to Hamas and were innocent. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza confirmed receiving the four bodies, including two children. An additional 12 people were wounded in that strike, civil defence added.

Al Jazeera condemns the killing as deliberate

Qatar-based network Al Jazeera announced Wishah’s death in what it described as an Israeli drone strike, calling it a "deliberate murder". Wishah had been a cameraman for Al Jazeera Mubasher, the network’s Arabic-language channel, since 2018. He was born in 1986 in the Bureij camp. His brother, Mohammed Wishah, an Al Jazeera correspondent, was also killed in an Israeli drone strike in April this year. Al Jazeera stated that Ahmad Wishah is the 12th employee of the network killed since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

This is a new and flagrant violation of all international laws and norms and reflects an ongoing systematic policy of targeting journalists and silencing the voice of truth.

The network called on the international community and legal institutions to take immediate action to investigate attacks on journalists and hold those responsible to account.

IDF calls him a Hamas terrorist

An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed to AFP that the military had conducted a "precision strike" and "eliminated" Ahmad Wishah, describing him as a "Hamas terrorist". The spokesperson did not provide evidence to support the claim, but said a formal statement with further details would be issued later. Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of targeting journalists, maintaining that its operations are directed at armed groups. In numerous cases it has labelled dead journalists as Hamas operatives, assertions that Al Jazeera, press freedom groups and human rights organisations have challenged or rejected.

A soaring journalist toll

According to Reporters Without Borders, over 220 journalists had been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza by the end of 2025, at least 70 of them while performing their duties. The Committee to Protect Journalists puts the number of Palestinian journalists killed since October 2023 at more than 260. Al Jazeera now counts a dozen of its own staff among the dead. The incident is likely to reignite international scrutiny over the safety of media workers in the conflict zone, and over Israel’s frequent characterisation of dead journalists as combatants without public proof.