An award-winning Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera was targeted and killed along with several colleagues in an Israeli strike in Gaza. Israel has defended the strike by accusing the reporter of terrorism, a charge that he denied while he was alive. Many are condemning the killing as part of a larger Israeli campaign against the media.
Palestinian journalist and colleagues killed in Gaza strike on journalists’ tent
Al Jazeera reported that one of its journalists, Anas al-Sharif, was killed in a targeted strike by the Israeli Defense Force in Gaza City on Sunday. Another Al Jazeera journalist, Mohammed Qreiqeh, was also killed in the strike, alongside cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa, and two other individuals. The strike targeted al-Sharif while he was inside a journalists’ tent outside the entrance of al-Shifa hospital. The strike was carried out via an Israeli drone on Sunday evening. Just before the strike, Al-Sharif tweeted that the area was being subjected to heavy bombing by Israeli forces.
Al-Sharif left a pre-written message in the event of his death, which was shared by his colleagues on the social media platform X. In the message, the married father of two asks that his son and daughter be cared for after his death. His message also states, “I urge you not to be silenced by chains, nor to be hindered by borders, and to be bridges towards the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom shines upon our occupied homeland.” Al-Sharif was one of the more well-known Palestinian journalists covering the war from inside Gaza. He was a member of a Reuters news team that won a Pulitzer Prize in photography in 2024 for its coverage of the war in Gaza.
Journalists reject Israel’s terrorism claims, accuse it of targeting the press
Israel has acknowledged that it intentionally targeted Al-Sharif in the strike that killed him and his colleagues, justifying the attack by accusing the reporter of being a Hamas terrorist. An Israeli statement said Al-Sharif “was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (Israeli) troops.” This accusation follows a similar one made in October, in which Israel accused Al-Sharif and other journalists in Gaza of being members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, claiming that documents and other evidence backed these claims. Al-Sharif and Al Jazeera denied that the reporter was part of any terrorist organization or activities.
Others, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, have said Israel has failed to provide evidence to back up its accusations. Sara Qudah, CPJ director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom.” Israel has mostly restricted outside journalists from operating within Gaza during the war, leaving mostly local journalists to cover the conflict. Even with these restrictions keeping most journalists out of Gaza, at least 192 reporters have been killed within the territory during the current conflict, according to CPJ statistics; the Hamas-run government of Gaza puts the number of reporters killed at 238, per Reuters.
With the war continuing and reporters heavily restricted from entering Gaza, Palestinian journalists like Al-Sharif have largely been the main source for information coming out of the territory during the conflict. With the Israeli military seemingly targeting reporters as part of its anti-Hamas campaign, reporting from Gaza remains an immensely dangerous endeavor.
