Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza strip, according to Al Jazeera. Their deaths mark nearly 113 journalists or media workers killed since the violence between Israel and Hamas began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The CPJ also found that this period has been the deadliest for journalists since 1992, when the CPJ initially began collecting information. 

While in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza city, their car was hit, killing them, according to reports. 

Reporting there, near the home of Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas, who was assassinated while in Tehran, Iran’s capital. Hamas has blamed Israel for the assassination, according to Al Jazeera. 

Anas al-Sharif, another Al Jazeera reporter in Gaza, was met with the bodies of his colleagues at the hospital. 

“Ismail was conveying the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres committed by the [Israeli] occupation against the innocent people in Gaza,” Al-Sharif said in an Al Jazeera report.

“The feeling – no words can describe what happened.”

Both al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were wearing media vests that identified their role in the region as well as in a car with identifying signs when the attack hit. Al Jazeera reported that they were last in touch with their news desk 15 minutes prior to the strike. 

When in contact with their news desk, they reported a strike on a home close to where they were reporting. Prompted to leave immediately, they were en route to Al-Ahli Hospital when the strike hit, killing them. 

Al Jazeera released a statement regarding the killings, calling it a “targeted assassination” by Israel’s military and plans to “pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.”

“This latest attack on Al Jazeera journalists is part of a systematic targeting campaign against the network’s journalists and their families since October 2023,” Al Jazeera said. 

“This is the second strike on an Al Jazeera journalist in a car,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a CBS news report. “That raises really disturbing questions about whether or not journalists are being deliberately targeted. … Whenever you see a case in which it appears that a particular building or a particular car has been targeted, and other cars or buildings in the area have been left alone, then that gives you reason to suspect that those places have been deliberately targeted, and of course, journalists are civilians and should never be targeted.”

CBS reported that as of July 31, that 113 journalists have been killed in Gaza. Of those 113 individuals, 108 are Palestinian journalists, three are Lebanese journalists and two are Israeli journalists, according to the CPJ.