GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Six people -- including an Associated Press video journalist -- were killed Wednesday when leftover ordnance believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up in the Gaza Strip.
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Journalist Simone Camilli and his Palestinian translator, Ali Shehda Abu Afash, were covering the conflict between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza when they were killed. Two blasts occurred as Gaza police engineers were trying to defuse unexploded ordnance fired by Israel, officials said.
Four police engineers also were killed, police said. Three people, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa, were badly injured.
Moussa told a colleague that they were filming when an initial explosion went off. He said he was hit by shrapnel and began to run when there was a second blast, which knocked him out. He woke up in a Gaza hospital and later underwent surgery before he was transferred to a hospital in Israel for more advanced care.
Police officials in Gaza said the blasts happened at a site in the northern town of Beit Lahiya where authorities have collected unexploded ordnance to be defused. The cause of the blasts was not immediately known.
Hamas police spokesman Ayman al-Batniji said there had clearly been a "mistake" and there would be an investigation. He said the Palestinians collect unexploded munitions but usually get help from international experts in disposing of them.
"We never deal with these things alone," he said, adding that police think only a small fraction of unexploded bombs from the fighting have been recovered.
An official said an Israeli tank shell caused the first explosion, triggering the more powerful secondary blast that included several bombs, including unexploded missiles dropped in Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli military has carried out nearly 5,000 airstrikes in a month of fighting.
Iyad al-Bouzm, a spokesman for Gaza's Interior Ministry, estimated that Israel dropped about 10,000 tons of explosives on Gaza. He said there was no estimate on how many unexploded shells remain.
Camilli became the first foreign journalist killed in the Gaza conflict. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based press-freedom advocacy group, four Palestinian journalists or media workers were previously killed in the fighting.
The 35-year-old Italian had worked for the AP since 2005. He is survived by a longtime domestic partner and a 3-year-old daughter in Beirut, as well as his parents and two sisters.
Camilli is the 33rd AP staff member to die in pursuit of the news since the agency was founded in 1846, and the second this year. On April 4, AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus was killed and veteran AP correspondent Kathy Gannon was badly wounded by a gunman in Afghanistan.
"As all of you know, this has been a very difficult year for AP," Gary Pruitt, the AP's chief executive, said in a memorandum to staff members. "As conflict and violence grows around the world, our work becomes more important but also more dangerous. We take every precaution we can to protect the brave journalists who staff our front lines. I never cease to be amazed at their courage."
He said the AP was providing assistance to Camilli's family.
Abu Afash, a 36-year-old Gaza resident, is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 7 and 2½. He often worked with the international media as a translator and news assistant, and worked as a part-time administrative assistant for Agence France-Presse.
"He is not a journalist. He's not a terrorist, nor a politician. He's an innocent man who loves to help everyone," said his wife, Shireen, a doctor who heads the neonatal unit at the al-Nasr Pediatrics Hospital in Gaza City and spent much of the fighting treating the wounded.
"He was happy to help the foreign journalists in the war. He was not afraid. He knew that if he died, he will go to heaven," she said. The couple was to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary in four days.
Information for this article was contributed by Karin Laub and Nicole Winfield of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/14/2014