Gaza, 23 January 2026 – According to field information from Gaza, at approximately 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, Israeli forces targeted a jeep vehicle carrying Palestinian photojournalists working with the Egyptian Relief Committee. The three journalists in the vehicle, Mohammad Salah Qishta, Abdelraouf Shaat, and Anas Ghunaim, were filming a recently established displacement camp near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. The attack instantly killed all three journalists.

Regarding this attack, journalist Osama Al-Kahlout told Al Mezan:           

“At around 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, I was informed that a vehicle belonging to journalists had been targeted near Netzarim. I immediately headed to the location. Upon arrival, I saw a jeep engulfed in flames, with local residents attempting to extinguish the fire using water and sand until ambulances arrived. Inside the vehicle were colleagues Abdelraouf Shaat, Mohammad Salah Qishta, and Anas Ghunaim, photojournalists working with the Egyptian Relief Committee. People present at the scene informed me that the three journalists had just finished filming a newly established displacement camp for displaced persons in the area and were leaving the site when their vehicle was targeted by Israeli forces.”

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians and injured six others in attacks across various areas of Gaza on Wednesday, 21 January 2026. These attacks targeted the three journalists, along with other Palestinians in east of Al-Bureij Refugee Camp and in the Wadi Gaza area. These incidents bring the total number of Palestinians killed and injured since the current ceasefire agreement entered into force on 11 October 2025 to 477 and 1,301 respectively.

The attacks on 21 January are not isolated events and are the latest in Israel’s continued escalation of settler-colonial violence, apartheid, and genocide against Palestinians. On the morning of Tuesday, 20 January 2026, Israeli forces stormed the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Sheikh Jarrah, in East Jerusalem. During the raid, the forces demolished buildings and mobile offices within the compound.

Earlier, on 8 December 2025, Israeli forces lowered the United Nations flag from the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem and raised the Israeli flag in its place. In addition, plans have been announced to cut water and electricity supplies to UNRWA facilities in other areas in the coming weeks, including health and educational institutions—an escalation that threatens to severely disrupt the agency’s operations and undermine its humanitarian and service role toward Palestinian refugees.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns Israel’s continued heinous crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing violations committed against Palestinians throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. Al Mezan stresses that this latest attack constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, as well as serious breaches of IHL and IHRL. In this context, Al Mezan calls on the international community to take urgent and effective action to halt the ongoing genocide and to immediately end the inhumane conditions imposed on more than two million Palestinians in Gaza.

Al Mezan further affirms that measures aimed at banning the work of UNRWA, alongside the targeting and demolition of its facilities, constitute grave violations of IHL, a direct assault on the UN system, and a serious threat to the lives and rights of millions of Palestinian refugees. Al Mezan underscores that these violations require urgent international intervention, full accountability for those responsible, and concrete, practical steps to ensure the continued operation and protection of the Agency, given its vital and indispensable role in providing humanitarian assistance and preserving the minimum conditions necessary for life for Palestinian refugees.