Journalist killed, evacuation calls issued as Israel presses Gaza offensive

by AFP teams in Gaza with Cyril Julien in Jerusalem

An Israeli air strike killed a journalist working with Al Jazeera on Monday and the military issued fresh calls to evacuate parts of Gaza's north, as Israel pressed its renewed bombardment and ground operations in the Palestinian territory.

Israel resumed intense air strikes across Gaza last Tuesday, followed by ground operations, after talks on extending a ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas reached an impasse.

On Monday evening, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued "an early warning before a strike" in the northern area of Jabalia.

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"Terrorist organizations are once again returning to and firing rockets from populated areas... For your safety, head south toward the known shelters immediately," Adraee said on X, after issuing similar warnings for the northern towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.

Earlier, Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli drone strike on Monday afternoon had killed Hussam Shabat, who was working with Al Jazeera, near a petrol station in Beit Lahia.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, said air strikes had targeted more than 10 cars, including Shabat's, in various parts of Gaza.

"Hussam Shabat, a journalist collaborating with Al Jazeera Mubasher, was martyred in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the northern Gaza Strip," an alert from the Qatari broadcaster said, referring to its live Arabic channel.

AFPTV footage from the scene in Beit Lahia showed Palestinians gathering around the car, which had an Al Jazeera sticker on its windscreen. A body could be seen on the ground nearby.

According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel's military in October accused Shabat and five other Palestinian journalists of being militants, which he denied.

AFP journalists reported hundreds of people attending Shabat's funeral held at Beit Lahia's Indonesian Hospital, praying over his body, which still wore a press flak jacket.

Tearful relatives and colleagues carried the body on a stretcher through streets flanked by rows of tents that displaced Gazans use as shelters.

The civil defence agency said a media worker from Islamic Jihad-affiliated Palestine Today TV, Muhammad Mansour, was killed in a separate air strike "that targeted his home in Khan Yunis", in Gaza's south.

In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called the deaths of Shabat and Mansour "a crime added to the record of Israeli terrorism".

It said that more than 206 journalists and media workers had been killed since the start of the war, which was triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

- 'Imagine this is your son' -

The October 7 attack resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures, while Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 50,082 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The health ministry said Monday that 730 people had been killed since Israel resumed bombardments on March 18, including 57 in the past 24 hours.

Militants also seized 251 hostages on October 7, 58 of whom are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas's armed wing released a video on Monday showing two Israeli hostages -- identified by AFP as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana -- describing the danger they have faced since the resumption of intense Israeli strikes.

Bohbot's family reacted to the video with a statement appealing to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to secure the remaining hostages' release.

"Imagine this is your son, the father of your grandchild, waiting to see daylight, hearing (Israeli army) bombs, and living in constant fear for his life," the statement said, adding "we want Elkana alive at home and the return of everyone".

- Civilians 'trapped' -

Israel's military said it intercepted a total of three "projectiles" launched from the Gaza Strip on Monday evening. Both Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad said they had launched rockets towards Israel.

The military also said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, the sixth since the resumption of Gaza hostilities, after the country's Iran-backed Huthi rebels had threatened to escalate their attacks in support of Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the municipality of the southern Gaza city of Rafah said in a statement Monday that "thousands of civilians" were "trapped under intense Israeli shelling" in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood.

It added that all communications were cut with the neighbourhood, and that the local health care system had "entirely collapsed".

On Sunday the military said it had encircled Tal al-Sultan to "dismantle terrorist infrastructure and eliminate" militants there.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that 50,000 displaced civilians were now left without humanitarian and medical services.

The International Red Cross Society (ICRC) reported on Monday that one of its Rafah offices "was damaged by an explosive projectile".

Israel's military later said its forces in Rafah had fired at a Red Cross building after mistakenly "identifying suspects inside", adding the incident would be investigated.

The United Nations, meanwhile, said a strike on its buildings in Gaza last week that killed one employee and injured several others was caused "by an Israeli tank".

During a visit to Jerusalem on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called for "restating the ceasefire, ensuring the release of all hostages, and resuming the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza with the goal of a permanent ceasefire".

Kallas, who visited Egypt on Sunday, said the EU welcomed an Arab plan put forward for the reconstruction of Gaza but more needed to be done to address issues such as cost-sharing and future governance.