A team of charity workers has been killed in Israeli strikes in northern Gaza, the UK-registered Al Khair Foundation has told the BBC.
The charity said eight workers – including volunteers and journalists documenting their activities – were killed when their vehicles were targeted on Saturday in what Hamas described as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement with Israel.
The Israeli military has said it had struck “two terrorists who were identified operating a drone that posed a threat to Israeli troops”, adding that it then targeted “additional terrorists” who arrived at the scene.
The charity rejects the allegation that members of its team were terrorists.
Qasim Rashid Ahmad, founder and chairman of the charity, told the BBC the team was in the area to set up tents and document it for the charity’s own promotion efforts.
He said that its two cameramen came back to the car and were hit, while other team members who rushed to the scene were then struck by an Israeli drone which had followed them when they went to the charity’s second car.
Several others were injured and rushed to the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
A spokesman for the group, Hazem Qassem, said Israel had “committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers”.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in place since January, but its future is uncertain as the process has reached an impasse raising fears of a return to fighting.
The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel responded with a massive military offensive, which has killed more than 48,300 Palestinians, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
