Photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab was killed along with 23 others on Monday in a massacre carried out by the Israeli army in a Al Baqa cafe in Gaza City.
An eyewitness told Al Manassa that the missile strike targeted the seafront cafe — a structure made of wood and metal — killing and wounding those inside.
Ismail, a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist, sustained fatal injuries to the head and back. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at Al-Shifa Hospital.
The attack resulted in the deaths of visual artist Amina Al-Salmi, also known as “France,” four cafe workers, and several women, children, and young people. Journalist Bayan Abu Sultan sustained minor injuries during the incident.
Ismail had previously exhibited his work in Los Angeles in a photo exhibit titled “Between Sky and Sea,” documenting the lives of Palestinians forcibly displaced to makeshift shelters on the Gaza coast.
In Nov. 2023, during the early days of the war, he sustained a severe leg injury from an artillery shell while filming Israeli bombardments from a high-rise in western Gaza City. Although his left leg narrowly avoided amputation after several surgeries, he had only recently begun walking again.
With his death, the number of journalists killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza now stands at 228, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. The office condemned what it described as a continued policy of targeting journalists and called on the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Journalists Union, and other media bodies to denounce the killings.
It also praised Ismail's work, including exhibitions held abroad that shed light on the situation in Gaza, and urged international legal action to hold Israel accountable for crimes against journalists.
Israeli strikes intensified from Monday night into Tuesday, killing over 110 people across the Gaza Strip. Gaza City bore the brunt, with residential neighborhoods and shelters among the targeted sites.
Among those killed were entire families, people seeking food aid, and displaced residents. Casualties were reported in Al-Zaytoun, Deir Al-Balah, and Khan Younis, where food distribution sites were struck, leaving dozens killed or injured.
Hamas has previously described the aid distribution process as a “calculated death trap,” accusing both Israel and the US of orchestrating it to deliberately harm civilians.
According to a journalist on the scene who spoke to Al Manassa, Israeli occupation forces have expanded military zones and escalated shelling in several neighborhoods, forcing residents in the Old City, Al-Sabra, and other districts to flee westward. The mass displacement is worsening overcrowding in already packed areas.
The ongoing Israeli assault, which began on Oct. 7, has left 56,500 Palestinians dead and 133,419 injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
