Tel aviv: Israeli media reported that tensions have escalated between Cairo and Tel Aviv following an attack on a vehicle carrying Gazans working with the Egyptian committee in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of five people, including three Egyptian journalists.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, Israel’s Channel 12 revealed that Cairo has demanded explanations from Tel Aviv regarding the attack, stating that Egypt is seeking “an understanding of why the Israeli Air Force targeted a vehicle carrying Gazans working for the Egyptian Committee for the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.”

In the same context, Israeli Army Radio reported that Egypt “sent an angry message to Israel after an airstrike in Gaza that killed five Palestinians.” Israeli Army Radio stated that “the victims were working for the Egyptian Committee for the Reconstruction of the Strip.” It explained that Cairo is protesting the execution of the airstrike outside the Green Line. Israeli Army Radio added that “Egypt asserts that the targeted area did not pose a threat to Israeli forces.”

For its part, the Maariv newspaper reported that tensions between Israel and Egypt have escalated to a new level following the attack on the vehicle. The newspaper reported that the Israeli army “claimed that these men were members of Hamas and that they operated a drone that approached its forces in the southern Gaza Strip.” Maariv quoted Egyptian sources as saying that “the dead were Egyptian citizens working in Gaza as part of the reconstruction efforts in the Strip.”

Earlier, medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported the deaths of three journalists working with the Egyptian Relief Committee as a result of an Israeli bombing of the Netzarim area south of Gaza City. The Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir al-Barsh, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli occupation continues to kill Palestinians in the Strip, adding that the three journalists killed worked for the Egyptian Relief Committee for Gaza.

For its part, the Civil Defense announced in a statement that the bodies of the three journalists killed by an Israeli drone strike had been transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that “the journalists were carrying out a field photography assignment in Netzarim, while documenting the conditions of camps supervised by the Egyptian Committee.” He added that the journalists were wearing clearly identifiable press clothing while at the target site.