Khan Younis, January 7 (RHC)-- At least two more journalists have been killed after their vehicle was targeted and blown up in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip.   The Palestinian journalists who have been identified as Hamza Wael al-Dahdouh, the son of al-Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuraya, were killed in the Israeli bombing of their car in the city of Khan Younis on Sunday.

Hamza and a group of journalists were en route to the Moraj area northeast of Rafah - which was designated a "humanitarian zone" by the Israeli army - but which had reportedly experienced recent bombings.  They had intended to report on the unfolding situation and the aftermath of the bombings in the area. Many displaced Gazans had fled to the area to escape the bombardment in other regions of the territory.

Hamza's father Wael al-Dahdouh is Al-Jazeera's bureau chief in the besieged Palestinian territory and was also recently wounded in an Israeli strike. He was wounded after his wife and two of his children were killed by a separate Israeli strike in the initial weeks of the Israeli aggression.

The media office of the Hamas resistance movement denounced “in the strongest terms this heinous crime” committed by the “Israeli occupation army against journalists.”

The UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territories has expressed concern over the high number of journalists who have been killed in Gaza since October 7.   Israel aims to “intimidate journalists in a failed attempt to obscure the truth and prevent media coverage,” the office added.

The media office called “on all press unions, human rights and legal bodies to condemn this crime and denounce its repeated commission by the occupation.”  It also called for pressuring “the occupation to stop the genocidal war against our defenseless people in the Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera Media Network has strongly condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ targeting of the Palestinian journalist’s car in northern Rafah.

The latest killings demonstrate “without a doubt the Israeli forces’ determination to continue these brutal attacks against journalists and their families, aiming to discourage them from performing their mission, violating the principles of freedom of the press”, the network said, adding that the attacks also “undermine the right to life”.

Al Jazeera called for “the International Criminal Court, governments, human rights organizations and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes” and demanded “an end to the targeting and killing of journalists.”

The media organization promised to take “all legal measures to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes” and pledged to stand “in solidarity and support with all journalists in Gaza”.

Meanwhile, Daoud Kuttab, a columnist for the al-Monitor news website, said the killing of two more journalists is “a despicable act, one that has to be denounced by anyone”.

“The journalism sector must demand an investigation into Israel and that Israel opens the border for international journalists, as well as for Israel to stop targeting journalists,” he said

“It is a very sad day. Firstly because for 90-something days we have not been able to allow a single international journalist to enter Gaza. The Israelis have been blackmailing the Egyptians to not allow any international journalists to enter,” Kuttab said.

A former Israeli official says Palestinians must be driven out of their homeland and deprived of their property, calling on Western governments to take in the displaced population in the Gaza Strip as the occupying regime’s genocidal war on the besieged territory enters its fourth month.

“So the only source of information has been Palestinian journalists and the Israelis have been killing them one after the other. Killing the journalists, killing the families of journalists – this is unacceptable. This is a violation of international law. Going after civilians is a war crime.”

Dozens of media workers have been killed since Israel’s invasion began three months ago.  The number of journalists killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7th has risen to 109.