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Ahmed Wishah killed
Al Jazeera said its cameraman Ahmed Wishah, along with two other people, died in an Israeli bombardment targeting a house in the center of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, June 20, and the network condemned what it called a "deliberate murder."
“07:55 05:31 01:22 03:09 52:05 01:31 01:46 01:46 26:50 01:19 20 Minutes with AFP Published June 20, 2026 at 9:07 PM • Updated June 20, 2026 at 10:09 PM The Al Jazeera channel, based in Qatar, announced on Saturday that one of its journalists had been killed in an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip”
France 24 reported that the Israeli army said it had struck Wishah and asserted he was a "Hamas terrorist," while AFP said a spokesperson provided no evidence and promised a later statement with more details.
The Israeli army also said Wishah was killed during a precise strike with two Hamas fighters and that he had served as a sniper in the Islamist movement, according to France 24.
France 24 added that Al Jazeera rejected the Israeli accusations, while friends and relatives gathered in mourning in Deir el-Balah around the body of the deceased in the morgue of Al-Aqsa hospital, according to AFP footage.
Al Jazeera said Wishah was the 12th Al Jazeera employee killed since the start of the war in October 2023, and it said the strike was carried out by a drone in the Bureij refugee camp, also injuring several, according to TF1 Info.
Journalists targeted, numbers
Beyond Wishah’s death, Al Jazeera Net said official and union sources documented the martyrdom of more than 260 journalists in the Gaza Strip since the start of October 7, 2023, and it cited the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate saying Israel killed 265 journalists in the Gaza Strip, including 27 female journalists, and wounded about 500 others.
Al Jazeera Net also reported that the Gaza Strip Government Media Office said the occupation killed 262 journalists and that the fate of three other journalists remains unknown, with no indication whether they were arrested or martyred.
The Al Jazeera Centre for Studies paper argued that the Israeli army has strived to target Palestinian journalists since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, and it described this as an institutionalized approach that sought to militarize media as a tool to control the Palestinian people in occupied territories.
It further said the Gaza war made clear that Israeli occupation authorities recognized the danger of global media attention and pushed Palestinian journalists to the top of targeted groups, while turning them into military targets despite protections guaranteed by international conventions.
In a separate CPJ-related controversy, Middle East Monitor reported that CPJ board chair Jacob Weisberg said, "It is not true that CPJ planned to change our definition of who is a journalist" after criticism over fears Palestinian and Lebanese reporters could be delisted.
Database and stakes
The CPJ database dispute sharpened after CPJ announced a full review of its database of journalists killed during Israel’s war on Gaza, and Middle East Monitor said the review followed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad mourning notices identifying some individuals as combatants.
Middle East Monitor reported that CPJ’s board voted on Wednesday to affirm its existing definition of “who is a journalist,” and it said CPJ denied it planned to exclude slain Palestinian and Lebanese journalists.
CAMERA, as quoted by JNS.org, urged major news organizations to revisit their reporting based on CPJ casualty data after CPJ said it was reviewing its Gaza database, and CAMERA said, "It is the CPJ that has long put journalists at personal risk by enabling terrorists to masquerade as journalists."
JNS.org also said CAMERA called on outlets including CBS, the BBC, Reuters, The Washington Post, CNN, The Associated Press, PBS, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and The New York Times to revisit their reliance on CPJ figures.
Meanwhile, Courrier international said CPJ’s annual report on the death of media workers worldwide attributed 86 deaths in 2025 to Israeli forces out of 129 total, and it stated that Israel was responsible for 38 of the 47 deadly incidents worldwide attributed to it by CPJ.
