An Al Jazeera cameraman is killed in the southern Gaza Strip.

An Al Jazeera cameraman was killed and the head of the Gaza Strip’s Arabic-language bureau was injured in an attack in southern Gaza on Friday. Al Jazeera saidthe latest in a long line of journalist victims during the war.

The cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, and Wael al-Dahdouh, the agency’s head, were covering the aftermath of airstrikes on a UN school-turned-shelter in Khan Younis when both were injured, the network said. Mr al-Dahdouh told Al Jazeera he was able to leave the area and seek help, but Mr Abu Daqqa died from his injuries, the network said.

In October, Mr al-Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where they had been sheltering.

Mohamed Moawad, editor-in-chief of Al Jazeera, described Mr Abu Daqqa as “a compassionate soul” whose photography “captured the raw and unfiltered reality and life in Gaza.”

“In his quest for the truth, our cameraman faced enormous risks to give viewers a deeper understanding of the human experience in Gaza,” he said in a social media post. “His lens became a window into the lives of those affected by conflict, shedding light on stories that needed to be told.”

This is what the Committee to Protect Journalists saysa New York-based nonprofit organization that defends the rights of journalists around the world, 64 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, more than in any other comparable period since the group entered into power. 1992 started data collection.

The CPJ defines journalists as “people who report news or comment on public affairs through print, digital, broadcast media and other means,” and media workers as essential support personnel, including translators, drivers and fixers. The group has said it does not list people if there is evidence they are “acting on behalf of militant groups or serving in a military capacity at the time of their death.”

According to CPJ data, some of the 64 people killed in Gaza were freelancers and did not work for traditional news media, and the website noted that it was unclear whether all of them were covering the conflict at the time of their deaths. Israel and Egypt have largely prevented international journalists from entering the enclave since the start of the conflict; Hamas, which controls Gaza, has long limited what the news media could report there.

Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ Program Director, said the organization was concerned about “the pattern of attacks on Al Jazeera journalists and their families.”

In a statementAl Jazeera blamed Israel for Friday’s attack in Khan Younis and for “systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their families.” It called on “the international community, media freedom organizations and the International Criminal Court to take immediate action to hold the Israeli government and military accountable.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the allegations. Khan Younis is one of three areas that Israel says it is focusing on in its fight to eradicate Hamas from Gaza.

John Kirby, a White House spokesman, said he was not aware of any evidence that Israel deliberately targeted journalists, who he said need to be protected.

“It is never acceptable to deliberately target them because they do such vital, hazardous and hazardous work,” he said, adding: “That is a principle we will continue to adhere to.”

International watchdogs have said an Israeli attack on October 13 that killed a Reuters videographer and injured six other journalists was a targeted attack carried out by the Israeli army. Earlier this year, a CPJ report found that no one had been held accountable for the nearly two dozen journalists killed by the Israeli army since 2001.

Katie Rogers reporting contributed.