JERUSALEM (Kyodo) -- Two journalists were killed in recent offensives by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, including a correspondent for a Japanese major daily, according to the area's authorities and the Asahi Shimbun.

The Gazan authorities on Monday made public the deaths of the journalists, while the daily said that its correspondent Mohammed Mansour, 29, came under missile attack at his home in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

Al Jazeera identified the other victim as its correspondent Hossam Shabat, 23.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said that Shabat was a combatant of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, while making no mention of Mansour.

The total number of journalists who have died in Gaza since Israel launched military offensives there in October 2023 is now 208, according to Gaza authorities.

The Tokyo-based daily said in a statement, "Attacks against civilians, including journalists, are never acceptable under any circumstance."

In New York, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the U.N. secretary general, told a press conference Tuesday that the attack "was yet another example of the dangers that journalists in Gaza and every conflict zone face to try and report the news, and journalists need to be protected in every way, shape and form."