Turkish broadcaster says reporter badly wounded in Gaza

A Turkish state television journalist was badly wounded and another slightly hurt in Gaza on Friday, the TRT channel said, adding that the team had been targeted by an Israeli strike.

"The vehicle of a team from TRT Arabi (TRT's Arabic-language channel) that was preparing to broadcast from the Nuseirat camp... was targeted by an Israeli army strike," the broadcaster said. "Sami Shehada, a freelance cameraman, was badly wounded," it added.

TRT's chief Zahid Sobaci said Shehada had "lost a foot and is currently in surgery", calling the attack "Israeli brutality."

The channel reported that other journalists were wounded in the central Gaza refugee camp.

Lying on the floor of the Al Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza city of Deir El Balah, Sami Shehada told an AFP reporter that he was "far from the danger zone. I was even surrounded by people and journalists."

"We were shooting when a strike targeted us, I don't know if it was missile or a tank. I saw that my leg was amputated," he recounted. "I was wearing a press vest and helmet and it was clear even for the blind that I am a journalist."

Speaking to journalists in Ankara, presidential office spokesman Fahrettin Altun said that "Israel targeted, deliberately and willingly committed this massacre."

Altun reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas had discussed the strike in a phone call.

"No matter what happens, we will continue to stand firm against Israel's barbaric attacks on Gaza and Israel will pay the price for this cruelty," Altun reported Erdogan as saying.

A tally from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 95 media workers had been killed in fighting since Oct.7, 90 of them Palestinians. At least 16 more have been wounded.

Agence France-Presse