Israel killed five Al Jazeera journalists on Sunday in a deliberately targeted attack on tented housing in Gaza City.
Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was killed alongside correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators for the channel Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. Two others were also killed in the airstrike.
The IDF issued a statement saying Al-Sharif “posed as an Al Jazeera journalist” and adding that he was “the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops”.
The statement said: “Intelligence and documents from Gaza, including rosters, terrorist training lists and salary records, prove he was a Hamas operative integrated into Al Jazeera.”
But the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said: “Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom.
“Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted. Those responsible for these killings must be held accountable.”
According to the CPJ the IDF has killed at least 178 Palestinian journalists since 7 October, 2023.
US-based Al Jazeera executive producer Jon Laurence said: “Anas was just 28. He showed incredible strength and bravery to continue reporting from northern Gaza.
“He endured exhaustion, starvation, and constant bombardment – as well as the deaths of around 200 of his fellow Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
“He died so that his people would continue to have a voice. In one viral clip – he was urged to carry on reporting live by those around him as he’s on the verge of fainting.
“Too frequently – the immense sacrifices made by Palestinian media workers are erased by members of our journalistic community.
“It is easy to feel impotent in the face of such unprecedented slaughter – the best part of a generation of journalists in Gaza has been wiped out.
“But targeting media workers is a war crime – and we cannot let it be normalised.
“RIP Anas, and all the other colleagues we have lost.”
Al-Sharif wrote a message in April which he asked to be published in the event of his death. In it he said: “This is my last will and testament, my final message. If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.
“Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you. God knows that I have exerted all my effort and strength to be a support and voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and neighborhoods of Jabalia refugee camp.
“I have lived the pain in all its details, and I have tasted the pain and loss repeatedly. Despite this, I have never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without falsification or distortion. May God be a witness against those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, and those who held our breath and whose hearts were not moved by the remains of our children and women, nor did they stop the massacre our people have been subjected to for more than a year and a half.”
Some 960 journalists from around the world have signed a new petition calling for calling for an end to Israel’s “information blackout” banning international reporting from Gaza.
Writing for Press Gazette in June, Sky News managing director Jonathan Levy said: “The ongoing denial of access to Gaza feels much less about the safety of journalists and more about preventing proper scrutiny and accountability of the desperate situation there.”
In May, a group of 17 leading Jewish journalists, including Emily Maitlis and Robert Peston, signed an open letter stating: “It is time for Israel and Egypt to stop using the pretext of battlefield security to prevent the world’s leading war reporters and foreign correspondents to be in situ to cover events.”
Yousef Hammash, who won a British Journalism Awards prize for his reporting from Gaza, said in December 2024: “International journalists need to stand ahead their responsibility and report and bear witness there because journalists in Gaza need and deserve a break. It’s as simple as that. And on the personal side, I want a break. You should go there, give me and my team a break.”
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