A number of journalists have lost their lives in the six-week battle, including the head of a well-known media organization in Gaza and two more who perished over the weekend in Israel's onslaught in the region, according to their families on Sunday.
As of this past weekend, there have been 48 documented murders of journalists and media workers in the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli offensive, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The CPJ said it looks for at least two sources to confirm each fatality, and its list includes journalists killed on both sides of the fighting, but the majority have been in Gaza. According to the report, 43 Palestinians, four Israelis, and one Lebanese were among the dead.
"Journalists in the area are sacrificing a lot to report this terrible fight. The coordinator of CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program, Sherif Mansour, wrote an email to Reuters saying, "Those in Gaza, in particular, have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll and face exponential threats."
According to his sister and other family members, Belal Jadallah, a journalist and the chairman of the board of Press House-Palestine, a non-governmental organization, was slain on Sunday, and his brother-in-law, a chemist, was gravely injured.
Earlier on Sunday, Jadallah informed his sister that he was leaving Gaza City and moving south. His sister reported that he was slain in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and that an Israeli tank shell was the cause of his death, citing accounts from those who discovered him, brought him to a hospital, and confirmed him dead.
Neither this report nor the reports of the other two journalists slain this weekend could be independently verified by Reuters.
In Gaza or overseas, four of Jadallah's relatives are employed by Reuters. Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed on October 13 in Lebanon, close to the Israeli border, is one of the journalists listed by CPJ among those slain.
Along with Jadallah, two other freelance journalists, Hassouna Sleem and Sary Mansour, perished on Saturday after an Israeli attack on the central Gaza Strip's Bureij refugee camp, according to their families and Palestinian health officials. The event resulted in 17 deaths, according to health experts.
Regarding Jadallah's and the others' deaths, an inquiry for comment was not answered right away by the Israeli military.
The Israeli military has previously stated that it will investigate specific incidents at a later time and that it is continuing its campaign to destroy Hamas in the wake of the October 7 attack. It has also said that it tries to minimize injury to civilians as much as possible.