PARIS, January 22, 2026 (WAFA) – Agence France-Presse (AFP) called for a thorough and transparent investigation into the killing of its freelance photojournalist, Abdel Raouf Shaath, who was killed Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a vehicle carrying journalists in the central Gaza Strip.

In a statement released Thursday, the agency said: “A very large number of local journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip over the past two years, while foreign journalists are still unable to enter the Strip freely.”

AFP expressed its deep sorrow at the killing of 34-year-old photojournalist Abdel Raouf Shaath, who had been a regular freelance photographer with AFP for nearly two years and was well-liked by the AFP team covering Gaza.

Shaath was killed Wednesday along with his colleagues, journalists Anas Ghneim and Mohammed Salah Qashta, in the town of Al-Zahra in the central Gaza Strip.

Since the beginning of the genocidal war in October 2023, 259 journalists and media workers have been killed by the occupation, in the largest media genocide known to humanity and the media throughout history.

K.T