Palestinian journalist seen in flames from Israeli strike on media tent dies
Palestinian journalist Ahmed Mansour has succumbed to burns sustained after an Israeli strike on a tent where reporters were known to reside in Khan Younis was set on fire.
In a widely shared clip, the correspondent for the local Palestine Today news agency was seen engulfed in flames as colleagues desperately attempt to save him on Monday.
Mansour was left in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
The Palestinian civil defence confirmed Mansour's death on Tuesday, according to Palestinian news website Arab48.
Middle East Eye correspondent Ahmed Aziz, who was a witness to the strike, reported that those in the tent "tried desperately to rescue Ahmed Mansour from the flames, but there were no resources available, as the sponge, wood, and nylon in the tent quickly caught fire."
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Mansour, a father of two, is one of three people who were killed as a result of the Israeli attack, including journalist Hilmi al-Faqawi and citizen Yousef al-Khazindar.
Several other journalists in the tent were wounded, including Hassan Islayeh, Ahmed al-Agha, Mohammed Fayeq, Abdullah al-Attar, Ihab al-Bardini, Mahmoud Awad, Majed Qudaih, and Ali Islayh, with some in critical condition.
Abed Shaat, a journalist who survived the attack, told MEE that around 3am, an Israeli strike hit the tent where journalists were known to be staying, without any prior warning.
“The tent was known to everyone as one for journalists, this confirms that this was a targeted attack on journalists,” Shaat stressed.
Since launching its war on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has killed 211 Palestinian journalists, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
Israel's war on Gaza has been the "worst ever conflict" for journalists according to a report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
The report, titled News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World, said the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 had "killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined".
The Committe to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in February that a record number of journalists were killed globally in 2024, with Israel responsible for nearly 70 percent of the deaths.
The CPJ accused Israel of attempting to stifle investigations of incidents, shift blame onto journalists and ignore its duty to hold people to account for the killings.
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