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Cairo/Jerusalem, August 11 (Reuters) – A prominent Al-Jazeera journalist previously threatened by Israel was killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday.
Israeli forces have said they targeted and killed Anas al-Sharif, claiming they were involved in a rocket attack on Israel.
Al Jazeera rejected this claim, and before his death, Al Sharif had rejected the previous claims by Israel that he was connected to Hamas.
Al Sharif, 28, is a group of four Al Jazeera journalists, an assistant who died on a strike in a tent near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said Gaza officials and Al Jazeera. Hospital officials said two other people were killed on the strike.
Mohammad al-Chardi, a sixth journalist and a local freelance reporter, was also killed in the airstrike, a doctor at Al-Sifah Hospital said on Monday.
Al Jazeera called Al Sharif “one of the brave journalists of Gaza” and described the attack as “a hopeless attempt to silence his voice in anticipation of Gaza occupation.”
The other journalists killed were Mohammed Kreike, Ibrahim Zahher and Mohammed Noufal, Al Jazeera said.
Al Sharif was previously part of the Reuters team and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2024 in the category of news photography for coverage of the Israeli-Hamas War.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that Al-Sharif is the head of Hamassel and “is responsible for proceeding with rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF forces.”
A group of journalists and Al Jazeera condemned the murder.
According to the cost of Watson International Public Service Project, the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza is the most fatal for journalists in record time. Hamas-Run Gaza Government Media Office said 238 journalists have been killed since the war began on October 7, 2023. The committee protecting journalists said at least 186 journalists were killed in the Gaza conflict.
Press freedom groups and UN experts have previously warned that Al Sharif’s life is at risk due to reports from Gaza. UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan last month said Israel’s claims against him were unfounded.
Pre-recorded messages
Al Jazeera said that Al Sharif left a social media message during his death, reading, “…I have never hesitated to convey the truth without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping to witness God in silence.”
Last October, Israeli forces claimed that as one of six Gaza journalists who claimed to be members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, they cited documents that lists people who completed their training courses and salaries.
“Al-Jazeera has defied Israeli occupation forces to portray journalists as terrorists and condemned the use of forged evidence,” the network said in a statement at the time.
The committee protecting journalists that urged the international community to protect Al-Sharif in July said Israel had failed to provide evidence to support the allegations against him.
“The pattern of labeling extremists without providing credible evidence to Israeli journalists raises serious questions about their intentions and respect for freedom of the press,” said Sarah Kuda, director of the Middle East and North Africa in CPJ.
Al Sharif, whose X account shows over 500,000 followers, was posted on the platform minutes before his death, where Israel had been firing violently through Gaza city for over two hours.
Hamas, Palestinian extremist group that runs Gaza, said the killing could mark the beginning of an Israeli attack. “The assassinations and threats of journalists pave the way for major crimes that the profession plans to commit to in Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would launch a new attack to demolish Hamas bases in Gaza, where the hunger crisis is escalating after the 22-month war.
“Anas Al Sharif and his colleagues were one of the last remaining voices of Gaza, conveying tragic reality to the world,” said Al Jazeera.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Ahmed Tolba, Additional Report by Joseph Axe of New York, Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Diane Craft, Lincoln Feast, Michael Perry and Sharon Singleton)
