°®Âþµº

On Thursday, the Israeli army killed five Palestinian journalists while they were working in front of al-Awda Hospital in al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.Ìý

"Ayman Al-Jadi, a cameraman; Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, a reporter; Fadi Hasouna and Mohammed Al-Lad'ah, both of them video editors, and Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali, who works in the follow-up department, were killed by the Israeli army," Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson of the civil defends, told °®Âþµº.Ìý

Basal added that the Israeli warplanes targeted a broadcast vehicle belonging to the Al-Quds satellite channel while they were in it by a missile.Ìý

Eyewitnesses said that the broadcast vehicle caught fire, which led to the charring of the victims' bodies.

A few minutes before the Israeli attack, Al-Jadi appeared in a touching video saying that 25 December was a special date, as it would be his first child's birthday. He did not know that the Israeli army will ultimately prevent him from holding his child even once.

"He was waiting in front of the gate of Al-Awda Hospital for the arrival of his firstborn child, but the occupation’s bombing was faster than the moment of joy, so the army killed him in cold blood, even without being able to see his baby," Odai al-Jadi, Ayman's brother, lamented to TNA.Ìý

"My brother felt he would leave this world without seeing his first child [...] When he told me that, I used to make fun of him and tell him that we would all die, but he [Ayman] would survive," he recalled, eyes brimming with tears.Ìý

According to Odai. Ayman had a sense of humour and a love of life and hoped that the war would end soon so that he could resume his normal life.

"But everything ended with Ayman's death," Odai said. "How can I continue our lives without him, and what sin did he commit? […] This war has killed everything in our lives, and we do not know how it will end and whether we will be alive or die."

Fadi Hasouna, another journalist who was killed by the Israeli army in the same attack, had an equal passion and love for life, according to Aseel Hasouna, Fadi's sister.

"The Israeli army did not only kill my brother, but it killed life, joy, hope and even peace," Aseel said toÌýTNA.Ìý

"Because of the Israeli war crimes, we lost the most precious thing we have in this life. We lost our homes, our lives and everything [...] Even if they rebuild Gaza and turn it into Singapore, we will not be able to rejoice because we lost our loved ones and our dreams," she said.Ìý

"We paid a heavy price in this war, and we paid from our flesh, our lives and our dreams, and nothing in this life can benefit us," she added.Ìý

For his part, journalist Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan dreamed of the war in Gaza ending one day and being able to sleep soundly so that he might forget the tens of thousands of horrific stories he documented in front of the camera for the world.

"But even this dream was annihilated by the Israeli army," Ibrahim Abu al-Qumsan, a relative of Faisal, remarked toÌýTNA.Ìý

"The Israeli army is lying and claiming that the five journalists belong to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while the truth is that they are just killing the journalists whose mission is to convey the truth to the world, which is complacent and silent about the crimes of the Israeli army," he said.

For its part, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the killing of the five journalists and said that "this crime comes in the context of a series of ongoing Israeli attacks against Palestinian journalists, which target media professionals at all times and in all places, in an attempt to obscure the truth."

In a statement to the press, the Syndicate called on the international community and all organisations concerned with human rights to provide urgent and immediate protection for Palestinian journalists and take practical steps to stop these crimes against them.

Over the course of 448 days of Israel's genocidal war, the Israeli army killed at least 201 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, the Gaza-based Palestinian government media office noted.