Gaza City, January 17 (RHC)-- Israeli forces killed Palestinian journalist Ahmed Abu al-Rous just moments before a ceasefire deal was announced in the regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The journalist was killed along with four other people, including his brother Mohamed, on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his vehicle at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Abu al-Rous was covering the escalating situation in Gaza when the deadly attack occurred.
The killing brings to at least 206 the total number of Palestinian journalists martyred in Israel's Gaza onslaught.
Abu al-Rous was the winner of the "Palestine Special: Citizen Journalist Award" at the second Sobh International Media Festival.
"Sobh festival had all the privilege & honor to have a martyr as the winner of citizen journalism award," Ahmad Noroozi, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)'s World Service, said in an X post.
The journalist had recorded a message and entrusted his colleague to release it in case of his martyrdom. “I am at ease. Relieved. Happy for everything I have done for Gaza," Abu al-Rous said in his pre-recorded video message.
Qatar, a mediator in the ceasefire, announced on Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinian Hamas resistance group had agreed to a ceasefire, leading to a pause in the regime's 15-month onslaught on Gaza.
The truce is expected to come into effect on January 19 and includes three phases, each of which will last 42 days.
The first phase will see the release of about 1,000 Palestinian abductees, including those with lengthy sentences, in exchange for 33 Israeli captives held in Gaza.
In a statement, Hamas described the ceasefire announcement as "the fruit of the legendary steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their resistance in Gaza."
Israel launched its brutal offensive against Gaza on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Since the onset of the war, the occupying regime has killed at least 46,707 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 110,265 others, in the besieged territory.
