Italian journalist Camilli killed in Gaza blast

(ANSA) - Gaza City, August 13 - An Italian journalist was killed by a grenade in the Gaza Strip that left an additional four people dead on Wednesday and injured several.
    Simone Camilli, 35, was killed by a blast that occurred when Palestinian experts were trying to defuse the unexploded grenade launched by an Israeli tank, according to reports. Palestinian photographer Ali Abu Afash, who was acting as Camilli's interpreter, and three members of the bomb squad also died in the blast, staff at Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza said. The slain journalists - along with Hatem Mussa from Palestinian news agency WAFA, who survived the explosion but is gravely wounded - had been allowed to document the defusing of that particular device, even though such operations are usually carried out with no non-essential people in the vicinity.
    The operation went horribly wrong, causing another five devices nearby to explode, eyewitnesses told ANSA.
    Family members said Camilli had been based in the Middle East but covered a wide range of major events, including the crash in January 2012 of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that resulted in 32 deaths, and the conclave that elected pope emeritus Benedict XVI in February 2005.
    He authored the documentary About Gaza, which tells the story of the difficult lives of Palestinians in their daily struggles for survival in the shadow of the conflict with Israel.
    He also covered first-hand Israel's Pillar of Cloud offensive in Gaza in December 2012, the 2011 exchange of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for former Israeli Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, the arrest in May 2011 of former Bosnian Serb commander and accused war criminal Ratko Mladic, the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, and the November 2007 clashes between Turkey and Kurdish militants.
    Camilli is the first foreign journalist to die on the job in the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, along with 16 local colleagues.
    The slain reporter is survived by his wife and three-year-old daughter.