Gaza City, Gaza - A Palestinian TV channel reported five of its journalists killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in Gaza.

A missile hit the journalists' broadcast truck as it was parked in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a statement from their employer, Al-Quds Today.

The network identified the five staffers as Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Ayman Al-Jadi, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna, and Mohammed Al-Lada'a.

They were killed "while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty", the statement said.

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"We affirm our commitment to continue our resistant media message," it added.

The Israeli military said in its own statement that it had conducted "a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat."

It added, without providing evidence, that "prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians."

According to witnesses in Nuseirat, a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft hit the broadcast vehicle, which was parked outside Al-Awda Hospital, setting the vehicle on fire and killing those inside.

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Middle East arm said the organization was "devastated by the reports that five journalists and media workers were killed inside their broadcasting vehicle by an Israeli strike".

"Journalists are civilians and must always be protected," it added in a statement on social media.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said last week that more than 190 journalists had been killed and at least 400 injured since the start of the war in Gaza, an unprecedented number in modern conflicts.

Leading media freedom organizations have accused Israel of committing an "unprecedented massacre" of Palestinian journalists, the targeting of whom is a war crime under international law.