Ahmad Qalaja, a 23-year-old freelance photojournalist working with Qatari-funded Al-Araby TV, died in the early hours of June 6, 2025, succumbing to his injuries approximately 15 hours after being injured in a drone strike by Israeli forces the previous day.
The drone strike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital courtyard killed correspondent Suleiman Hajjaj and camera operator Ismail Baddah of Palestine Today TV, a channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Three other journalists were also injured in the strike: Palestine Today TV correspondent Emad Daloul and two other journalists with Al-Araby TV: reporter Islam Badr and freelance camera operator Imam Badr, who are brothers.
“The strike happened at around 10:20 a.m. with a single missile fired by an Israeli drone directly at a group of journalists who were sitting in the courtyard, working on their laptops,” Islam Badr, who started filming minutes after his right leg was hit, told CPJ. “Qalaja was critically injured by shrapnel.”
Qalaja’s father, Alaa Qalaja, told CPJ that since he was fasting for the Day of Arafah, his son had gone to work that day without breakfast. “An Israeli drone targeted a group of journalists who were sitting at a table in the hospital courtyard. Several were killed,” he said. “Ahmad, who was sitting a few meters away, was hit by three pieces of shrapnel in the brain. He fell into a coma with brain paralysis and passed away at 1 a.m. on Friday."
CPJ reviewed video footage of the moment of the strike, which shows Qalaja sitting on a chair in his work area when he was hit by shrapnel in the head. He could be heard moaning in pain.
Qalaja had just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media from Al-Azhar University in Gaza. "He hadn’t even received his diploma yet, but he had been working as a cameraman since the beginning of the war,” his father said. “He loved journalism. I work as the deputy director of outside broadcasting at Palestine TV, so I encouraged him and provided him with training opportunities."
The Israel Defense Forces said on Telegram that they had “precisely struck an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was operating in a command and control center in the yard of the Al-Ahli Hospital.”
Avichay Adraee, IDF spokesperson for Arabic Media, later published a statement on his Facebook page acknowledging the targeting of Hajjaj and Samir Al-Rifai, a former office worker at the local, privately owned Shams News Agency who was also killed, claiming they were members of the Islamic Jihad movement who were acting “as if they were journalists.”
He said they “were masquerading as journalists and operating from inside the Baptist Hospital to facilitate terrorist activity.” Adraee provided no evidence for his claims.
Palestine Today TV described the killings as a “double war crime” for “direct targeting” its journalists and a hospital, both protected under international law.
CPJ’s email seeking comment from the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk about the targeting of journalists did not receive a response.