Hamada Al-Yaziji, a 29-year-old Palestinian journalist and editor at the privately owned Kanaan News Agency and Hamas-owned Al-Quds Radio, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit his home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of Gaza City in the evening of December 3, 2023. He died along with approximately 34 members of his family, according to media reports, and his employer and brother, who spoke to CPJ.
Rami Abu Tuaima, director of Kanaan News Agency, told CPJ that Al-Yaziji had been actively editing and preparing stories since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 2023. He described Al-Yaziji as a highly professional journalist, committed to covering humanitarian stories that exposed Israeli actions against civilians in Gaza.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk in late September 2024, asking for comment on the killing of Al-Yaziji. In an exchange that followed, the IDF asked CPJ for the journalists’ IDs and "relevant coordinates," which CPJ explained it could not provide due to research limitations. The IDF then said it could not fully address CPJ’s inquiry due to a lack of "sufficient details." The IDF said it takes "all operationally feasible measures" to prevent harm to journalists and other civilians, asserting that "many" on CPJ’s list were Hamas members and therefore lawful targets, but did not name the journalists or provide evidence they were Hamas fighters.