Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer for AFP news agency, and Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with Al Jazeera television network, were killed while they were travelling in a car, the ministry and medics said.

Hamza's father Wael al-Dahdouh is Al Jazeera's bureau chief in the Gaza Strip, and was also recently wounded in a strike. He was wounded after his wife and two children were killed by a separate Israeli strike in the initial weeks of the war.

Thuria had worked with AFP since 2019.

By December 31, at least 77 journalists and media workers had been killed since the October 7 start of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the new York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Of those 77, 70 were Palestinian, four Israeli, and three Lebanese.