Al-Araby TV journalist's mother, sisters and their children killed in Israel strike in Gaza

The mother of Al-Araby TV's Gaza correspondent Ahmed Al Batta was killed alongside other members of his family after an Israeli strike targeted the city of Khan Yunis.

Al-Batta's mother, sisters, nephews, and nieces were killed in intense Israeli bombardments over the weekend across Gaza, Al-Araby TV, The New Arab's Arabic-language sister channel said on Monday.

Khan Younis, south of the strip, was a key target of Israeli bombing on Monday morning, killing at least 22 people.

A video shared online showed a distraught Al-Batta receiving news of their killings over the phone. In a separate interview with Al-Araby TV, he said he was preparing a safer place for them to relocate to shortly before they were killed.

Just a few days earlier, Al-Batta said several of his relatives were killed when their house near the University College of Science and Technology in Khan Younis was targeted by Israeli warplanes.

Earlier on Monday, Quds News Network reported that Palestinian journalist Abdullah Breis and several members of his family were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis.

Khan Younis and Rafah were previously designated in a safe zone by Israel, but have since been the target of intense bombardments despite hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing there from northern Gaza.

Two journalists were killed in a targeted strike on their car in Rafah, southern Gaza on the weekend. Journalist Hamza Dahdouh, the son of renowned journalist Wael Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuria died in the strike which Al Jazeera says deliberately targeted them.

Israel has killed the mother, sisters, nephews and nieces of Al Araby TV's reporter Ahmad Al Batta. pic.twitter.com/stJYhON03D

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 8, 2024

Their deaths bring the number of Palestinian journalists killed since the start of Israel's brutal war on Gaza on 7 October to 110, according to Gaza's media office.

"What is happening in the Gaza Strip is the largest massacre against media in the world's history, and in the shortest period," said Nasser Abu Bakr, the head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.

The Committee on Freedoms within the syndicate said in a statement on 21 December that evidence suggests that the Israeli army was deliberately targeting journalists in Gaza.

It said that Israel had extended their attacks to targeting the families of journalists.

"Hundreds of journalists' families have been [killed] in bombings targeting their homes as a price for their children's profession," the statement said.

Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip entered its 94th day on Monday and has so far killed over 22,800 people - mostly women and children - and injured around 58,000.