Ahmed Abu Al-Rous, a 29-year-old Palestinian journalist who worked as a reporter and photographer for the local Assulta Arrabaa (Fourth Estate) news agency, was one of five people killed when an Israeli drone strike hit his car on January 15, 2025, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, days before a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza began, according to multiple news reports.
His father, Hisham Abu Al-Rous, told CPJ that: “At around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, a few days before the truce went into effect, Ahmed was driving his car with his twin brother Mohammed and three friends in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Of course, they did not pose any threat to the Israeli occupation, so an Israeli drone fired a single missile at them, killing all five.”
Fourth Estate’s editor-in-chief, Youssef Rayyan, told CPJ: “Ahmed worked with us at the agency from June 1, 2023, until his martyrdom, and he was providing the agency with news and photos while he was recently at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.”
Rayyan said that Ahmed was displaced during the war from the Nuseirat to the southern city of Rafah, where he continued reporting.
Abu Al-Rous was buried in the Nuseirat camp on January 16, 2025.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk inquiring whether it knew that civilians and journalists were in the area it bombed and whether Al-Rous was targeted for his work, but didn’t immediately receive a response.