Star Metro - Deadly Israeli strikes mar fragile Gaza truce

Following the reported strikes, the deadliest since the ceasefire took hold on January 19, Hamas accused Israel of a "blatant violation" of the truce which largely halted more than 15 months of fighting.

The first phase of the truce ended on March 1 without agreement on the next steps, but both Israel and Hamas have refrained from returning to all-out war.

A senior Hamas official said on Tuesday fresh talks had begun in Doha, with Israel also sending negotiators.

On Saturday, Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that "nine martyrs have been transferred (to hospital), including several journalists and a number of workers from the Al-Khair Charitable Organisation".

He said the killings were "as a result of the occupation (Israel) targeting a vehicle with a drone in the town of Beit Lahia, coinciding with artillery shelling on the same area".

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said "nine martyrs and several injured, including critical cases" were taken to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it hit "two terrorists... operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area of Beit Lahia".

"Later, a number of additional terrorists collected the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle. The IDF struck the terrorists," it added.

Israel has carried out near-daily air strikes in Gaza since early March, often targeting what the military said were militants planting explosive devices.

"The occupation has committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

- 'Systematic targeting' -

A separate Hamas statement said the attack was "a dangerous escalation", adding that it "reaffirms (Israel's) intent to backtrack on the ceasefire agreement and intentionally obstruct any opportunity to complete the agreement and carry out the prisoner swap".

During the truce's initial six-week phase, militants released 33 hostages, including eight who were deceased, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons.

Hamas said Saturday that "the ball is in Israel's court" after offering to release an Israeli-US hostage and return the bodies of four others as part of the truce talks.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that among the nine killed were at least three photo journalists, one a drone photography specialist, and a driver.

It said two of the photographers worked for the Oman-based Ayn television channel.

Two members of the Al-Khair charitable organisation were killed, including a spokesperson, the civil defence agency said.

"This heinous crime comes in the context of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists, who pay with their lives to convey the truth and expose the crimes of the occupation to the world," a Palestinian Journalists Syndicate statement said.

"The continuation of these brutal attacks against journalists constitutes a war crime and a blatant violation of international laws, especially the Geneva Convention, which guarantees the protection of journalists during conflicts."

The director of Hamas-affiliated media in Gaza, Ismail Thawabteh, told AFP that local photo journalists were killed while "using a drone to capture images of a Ramadan dining table in Beit Lahia".

He said they were "directly targeted by the occupation in two air strikes, despite their work being clear".

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in February that a total of 85 journalists had died in the Israeli-Hamas war, "all at the hands of the Israeli military", adding that 82 of them were Palestinians.

In November, Reporters without Borders said that more than 140 journalists had been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which sparked the war.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, while Israel's military retaliation in Gaza killed more than 48,543, according to figures from the two sides.

There are still 58 hostages held in Gaza, 34 of whom the Israeli army has declared dead.

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L.Mitchell--SMC