Ahmed Mansour, an editor for the pro-Palestinian Islamic Jihad news agency Palestine Today, died late on April 7, 2025, after being severely burned by in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a tent in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis at around 1:25 a.m. on April 7, 2025.
Hilmi al-Faqaawi, a social media manager for the pro-Palestinian Islamic Jihad broadcaster Palestine Today TV, was also killed in the tent, which belonged to his outlet, and housed multiple journalists.
Eight other journalists were injured in the attack: BBC Arabic contributor Ahmed Al-Agha, freelance photojournalist and drone operator Mohammed Fayeq, Anadolu Agency photographer Abdullah Al-Attar, camera operator Ihab Al-Bardini, Al Jazeera camera operator Mahmoud Awad, Radio Algerie correspondent Majed Qudaih, Alam24 photographer Ali Eslayeh, and AFP photographer Abed Shaat.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike targeted Hassan Eslayeh, a freelance photographer “who was with Hamas on October 7, 2023.” The IDF said Eslayeh, who was injured on April 7, 2025, was a “terrorist” who “participated in the bloody massacre.”
Footage verified by Reuters news agency showed people trying to douse flames in the tent while other images of someone trying to rescue Mansour from the flames were widely shared online.
Tamer Qishta, editor-in-chief of the local daily pro-Hamas newspaper Felesteen (Palestine), who was working in a nearby tent, told CPJ that Palestine Today TV’s tent was targeted with a single missile at around 1:25 a.m.
“I got up from my seat and went to document immediately. I found some of the journalists burning. I quickly put down my cell phone, which had been recording, and began trying to rescue the wounded,” Qishta said. “The missile fell on the first three meters of the tent in its southern part, where journalist Ahmed Mansour, who suffered severe burns, and martyr Hilmi al-Faqaawi were located. The rest of the journalists … were located in the northern part.”
Shaat, a freelance photographer who contributes to Agence France-Presse news agency, burned his right hand while trying to save Mansour.
“I woke up to the sound of a huge explosion nearby,” Shaat told Al Jazeera, describing how he and his colleagues rushed out of their tent and he started filming the blaze in the neighboring tent until he realized that a journalist was on fire and trapped inside.
“I don’t even know how I summoned the courage to approach the flames and try to pull the burning person out. The fire was intense. There was a gas canister that had exploded, and another one that was burning. I tried to pull him out by his leg, but his pants tore off in my hand. I tried from another angle, but I couldn’t. The fire grew so strong, I fell back, I couldn’t bear it any longer,” said Shaat, who said he then lost consciousness and was taken to Nasser Hospital.
CPJ’s email to the IDF’s North America Media Desk inquiring about the attack on the journalists’ tent did not receive an immediate response.