LONDON: Palestinian journalist Yahya Subaih was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on Wednesday, just hours after celebrating the birth of his daughter.
Subaih was among at least 11 people killed when Israeli warplanes struck a restaurant in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City. Dozens more were injured in the attack, according to local media reports.
Another local journalist, Nour Abdu, was reportedly killed while covering an attack early on Wednesday morning at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City.
That strike killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes in other areas killed at least 16 others.
The Government Media Office in Gaza condemned what it described as the “systematic targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists,” and called on the international community to act.
In a statement, the office urged global powers “to put serious and effective pressure to stop the crime of genocide, protect journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip, and stop the crime of killing and assassinating them.”
Subaih, who worked with multiple media outlets, had shared a photo on social media just hours before his death, cradling his newborn daughter. “A little princess has brightened our world,” he wrote.
Footage circulating online shows Subaih wearing the same clothes he wore in the photo with his daughter.
His death adds to the growing number of media professionals killed in Gaza, which has become the most dangerous place in the world for journalists since Israel’s war on the enclave began on Oct. 7, 2023.
According to the Costs of War project by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the current conflict is the deadliest ever recorded for journalists.
More than 170 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began, with some estimates placing the figure as high as 214.
The overall death toll from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has surpassed 52,000 people, most of them women and children, with more than 118,000 injured, according to the territory’s health authorities.