Turkish broadcaster says reporter badly wounded in Gaza

ANKARA

A Turkish state television journalist was badly wounded and another slightly hurt in the Gaza war Friday, the TRT channel said, adding that the team had been targeted by an Israeli strike.

"The vehicle of a team from TRT Arabi (TRT's Arabic-language channel) that was preparing to broadcast from the Nuseirat camp... was targeted by an Israeli army strike," the broadcaster said.

"Sami Shahada, a freelance cameraman, was badly wounded," it added.

TRT's chief Zahid Sobacı said Shahada had "lost a foot and is currently in surgery", calling the attack "Israeli brutality".

The channel reported that other journalists were wounded in the central Gaza refugee camp.

"To keep its massacres hidden, Israel targets journalists and undermines press freedom. The international community's indifference to these attacks encourages Israel,"  Türkiye's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said on X.

"The international community must take action against the atrocities taking place before our eyes," he continued.

"Those who remain silent against these systematic attacks are complicit in Israel's crime of genocide." 

A tally from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) numbers at 95 the number of media workers killed in fighting since Oct. 7, 90 of them Palestinians.

At least 16 more have been wounded.

Fighting between Israel and Hamas erupted with the militant group's Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP toll based on official figures.

Of more than 250 people kidnapped, 129 remain in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead, according to Israeli officials.

Israel's Gaza campaign to destroy Hamas has killed 33,634 people in the territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.