Abdulhadi Habib, a 37-year-old Palestinian journalist who worked for Al-Manara News Agency, HQ media, and for UNRWA TV, which is part of the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees, was killed along with several of his family members in an Israeli airstrike on a residential apartment in the Zeitoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City, according to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, the independent Palestinian-run news organization International Middle East Media Center, and Airwars, a London-based nonprofit company that monitors civilian harm in conflict.
Habib’s mother in law and her grandchild were reportedly also killed in the same airstrike, according to those sources.
The Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in a statement on October 30, 2023, “I deplore the death of Abdulhadi Habib. I reiterate my call for the respect of the UN Security Council Resolution 2222/2015 on the protection of journalists, media professionals and associated personnel as civilians in situations of conflict and call for a full independent investigation into the circumstances of his death.”
Thousands of Palestinians were killed in the first months of the Israel-Gaza war, which began on October 7 after Hamas militants attacked Israel, leaving about 1,200 Israelis dead.