Al Jazeera engineer loses 19 family members in air raid

 Al Jazeera on Wednesday claimed that 19 family members of its staffer, Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan, were killed in the Israeli airstrike launched at the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The strike is believed to have killed at least 50 Palestinians and a Hamas commander.

Taking to social media a day after the attack, Al Jazeera said it “vehemently condemns the heinous and indiscriminate Israeli bombing that has resulted in killing of 19 family members of our dedicated SNG engineer, Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan”.

Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan, who works at the Gaza bureau, lost his father, brother, two sisters, and eight nephews and nieces among other relatives in the Israeli air raids on Jabalia camp, Al Jazeera reported, condemning what it said was a “massacre” by the Israeli forces.

It further asserted that Israel needs to be held accountable for these “crimes against civilians” and that its should have to “face the full force of international justice”.

Days earlier, another Al Jazeera correspondent had lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in Israeli air raid, the report said.

Meanwhile, accusing both sides of committing possible war crimes, an international media freedom group said Wednesday that thirty-four journalists have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Reporters Without Borders called on International Criminal Court prosecutors to investigate the deaths. The organization said it already filed a complaint regarding eight Palestinian journalists it said were killed in Israel’s bombardment of civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, and an Israeli journalist killed during Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel.

“The scale, seriousness and recurring nature of international crimes targeting journalists, particularly in Gaza, calls for a priority investigation by the ICC prosecutor,” Christophe Deloire, director-general of the group also known by the French abbreviation RSF, said. The organization is headquartered in France.

It’s the third such complaint to be filed by the group since 2018 alleging war crimes against Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Israel says it makes every effort to avoid killing civilians and accuses Hamas of putting them at risk by operating in residential areas.

The latest complaint also cites “the deliberate, total or partial, destruction of the premises of more than 50 media outlets in Gaza” since Israel declared war against Hamas over the militant group’s bloody October 7 incursion, the organization said.

Israeli airstrikes have hit apartment buildings in a refugee camp near Gaza City for a second day in a row, causing many deaths and injuries, the Hamas-run government said. The toll from Wednesday’s strikes was not immediately known.

Meanwhile, dozens of people with foreign passports entered the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt. It appeared to be the first time that foreign passport holders have been allowed to leave the besieged territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than three weeks ago.

Communications and internet services were gradually being restored after the second major cut in five days, according to Paltel, the main service provider. Humanitarian aid agencies have warned that such blackouts severely disrupt their work in an already dire situation in Gaza.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,525, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 122 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them civilians slain in the initial October 7 Hamas rampage that started the fighting. In addition, around 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group. One of the captives, a female Israeli soldier, was rescued in a special forces operation.