The Gaza media office and Reporters Without Borders say there is evidence to suggest this was a targeted attack.
Three journalists were injured, one of them seriously, in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which authorities in the besieged strip say was a targeted attack.
Sami Shehadeh, a journalist for Turkish broadcaster TRT, had his foot amputated after being injured in Friday’s attack, according to the channel. TRT Arabi correspondent Sami Berhum was also injured.
“The vehicle of a TRT Arabi team [TRT’s Arabic-language channel] which was preparing to broadcast from the Nuseirat camp… was the target of an attack by the Israeli army,” the broadcaster said.
TRT Director General Zahid Sobaci called the attack “Israeli brutality” and said it crossed all “moral, legal or humanitarian limits.”
Lying on the floor of al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, Shehadeh told an AFP reporter that he was “far from the danger zone. He was even surrounded by people and journalists” when the attack occurred.
“We were shooting when an attack hit us, I don’t know if it was a missile or a tank. I saw that my leg was amputated,” she said.
“I was wearing a press vest and helmet and it was clear even to the blind that I was a journalist.”
‘Journalists deliberately targeted’
The Gaza media office condemned the Israeli attack on the vehicle carrying the three journalists.
“We strongly condemn the continued attacks on journalists and media teams by the Israeli occupation forces,” he said in a statement.
Israeli forces are “deliberately killing and injuring journalists in an attempt to scare, threaten and prevent reporters from carrying out their duties, as well as to stifle the truth,” he added.
Jonathan Dagher, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Middle East bureau chief, said reports of journalists being attacked, injured and killed in Gaza by Israel had become “all too common”.
“We have had to report them almost daily for the last six months. This is just the latest attack, it’s terrible… it’s unacceptable,” he told Al Jazeera.
Dagher described the attack as “unprovoked” and said there was enough evidence to prove the vehicle was targeted.
More than 100 journalists have been killed by Israel in Gaza in the past six months, he said.
This “massacre must stop”, he added, calling on the international community to “increase pressure” on Israel.
Speaking to journalists in Ankara, Turkish presidential office communications director Fahrettin Altun said that “Israel deliberately and voluntarily attacked, committed this massacre.”
Altun reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas discussed the attack over the phone.
“No matter what happens, we will continue to stand firm against Israel’s barbaric attacks on Gaza and Israel will pay the price for this cruelty,” Altun said, Erdogan reported.
At least 70 people injured in Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza have been taken to the camp’s al-Awda Hospital since Friday morning, according to local sources.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 33,600 people since the war began on October 7.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
