Gaza photojournalist, family killed in Gaza strike; IDF says it targeted Hamas operative
Fatima Hassouna, 25, was subject of documentary due to premiere at Cannes next month; military hits 40 targets across Strip, captures and destroys tunnels in north of the enclave
A young Gazan photojournalist, Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli strike in northern Gaza this week, according to the Guardian.
The Britsh newspaper reported Friday that Hassouna, 25, was killed Wednesday along with 10 members of her family, including her pregnant sister, several days before she was due to be married.
“If I die, I want a loud death,” she wrote on social media, according to the report. “I don’t want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group, I want a death that the world will hear, an impact that will remain through time, and a timeless image that cannot be buried by time or place.”
Hassouna was the subject of the documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted a Hamas operative involved in attacks on soldiers and civilians.
“Prior to the strike, measures were taken to minimize the risk to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” it said.
The military also accused Hamas of “systematically violating international law, while cynically and brutally using the population as a human shield for terror activity.”
????Heartbreaking: Fatima Hassouna was a gifted artist, photographer, and journalist — a brave voice from Gaza known for her powerful images and storytelling. Today, Israel killed Fatima and ten of her family members, silencing a lens that showed the world Gaza’s truth. pic.twitter.com/wRfYKiZDAY
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) April 16, 2025
Also Friday, the military said the Israeli Air Force struck some 40 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, with targets including terror operatives, buildings used by terror groups and weapons depots, as troops continue to operate on the ground across the Strip.
Palestinians said that at least 24 people were killed in the strikes.
In the Tel Sultan and Shaboura areas of southern Gaza’s Rafah, the military said, troops of the Gaza Division destroyed Hamas infrastructure and killed several operatives during an ambush.
In northern Gaza, the 252nd Division destroyed a weapons depot and directed drone strikes on operatives, the army said.
Additionally, during recent operations in Gaza City’s eastern neighborhood of Shejaiya, the IDF said reservists of the Jerusalem Brigade, now in their fourth round of reserve duty in Gaza, located several tunnels and a weapons depot.
The military said the operations in Shejaiya are intended to expand a buffer zone along the Gaza border. The area is relatively elevated and overlooks the Israeli border communities of Nahal Oz, Kfar Aza and Sa’ad.
This past week, the IDF said the reserve brigade eliminated a cell of operatives that was planning a sniper attack on the forces.
The tunnels and weapon depot located by the reservists were demolished by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, the army added.
A Hamas tunnel in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood is demolished in a video published by the IDF on April 18, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled civil defense agency said that 24 people were killed in strikes across Gaza, including 10 people were killed in an overnight attack near the southern city of Khan Younis.
“Our crews recovered the bodies of 10 martyrs and a large number of injuries from the house of the Baraka family and the neighboring houses targeted by the Israeli occupation forces in the Bani Suhaila area east of Khan Younis,” spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said on Telegram.
The agency also reported at least 14 others allegedly killed in multiple Israeli strikes across the territory, including at least two strikes which it said hit tents sheltering displaced people.
There was no immediate IDF comment on the specific strikes in question. Israel has said, in general, that it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Soldiers complain of lack of food
After troops of the Golani Brigade operating in Gaza complained they were not receiving enough food due to kosher-for-Passover restrictions, the chief of the Technological and Logistics Directorate, Maj. Gen. Mishel Yanko, entered the Strip on Friday morning to inspect the matter personally, the military said.
Yanko met with several units in Gaza “in order to ensure that the troops are receiving the necessary food and logistics response.”
The IDF said it has a 24/7 hotline running throughout Passover where soldiers can issue complaints regarding food.
On Thursday, reports emerged that Golani soldiers who are fighting in Rafah complained to their parents that they were only eating matzah with chocolate spread and had not had a single hot meal in several days.
The IDF on March 18 resumed its attacks against Hamas with a surprise wave of airstrikes, ending a two-month ceasefire. Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.
The IDF says it continues to ramp up pressure on Hamas to bring the terror group to agree to a hostage deal, but was not moving ahead with a major offensive just yet.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive, and 35 of whom have been confirmed dead — including 58 of those abducted on October 7.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and military operations along the border stands at 410.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.