5 Gazans and Italian videoreporter killed in Gaza ordnance blast

Italian ministry of foreign affairs has confirmed Wednesday the death of Italian video journalist Simone Camilli, reported for The Associated Press (AP) in Gaza.

“The death of Simone Camilli is a tragedy for our country,” said Federica Mogherini, Italian minister of foreign affairs.

"Once more a reporter pays the price for a war that has lasted too many years. For the second time in the space of a few months, we mourn over the death of hardworking courageous reporters,” she said in remembrance of Andrea Rocchelli, another Italian journalist who lost his life in Ukraine in last May.

Camilli was among a group at least five people - including a local journalist - who were killed while six others were critically injured after an unexploded Israeli missile blew up in Beit Lahiya in north Gaza, witnesses and a health ministry spokesman said.

Ashraf al-Qudra identified three of the dead as Bilal Muhammad al-Sultan, 27, Taysir Ali al-Hum, 40, and Hazem Ahmad Abu Murad, 38.

Palestinian photojournalist Hatem Moussa was also injured in the explosion, reported Ma’an News Agency.

Camilli is the first foreign journalist to be killed in more than a month of bloodshed between Israel and Hamas militants which began on July 8.

He was at the scene with the photographer to cover the story of bomb experts dismantling unexploded ordnance, the AP said.

In a side room at the Kamal Adwan hospital, male relatives could be seen weeping and praying together, some people too shocked to talk.

Witnesses said the incident occurred as a police engineering team was attempting to defuse an Israeli missile that hit near the al-Sheikh Zayid towers days earlier, but did not explode, reported Ma'an.

The blast occurred as Israel and Hamas militants were observing a 72-hour truce which expires at midnight local time as negotiators in Cairo tried to thrash out a more permanent ceasefire arrangement..

Nearly 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's offensive on Gaza.