Israel attacks Gaza, five Al Jazeera journalists killed
Gaza: According to the network, an Israeli attack near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital has killed five Al Jazeera journalists, including well-known correspondent Anas al-Sharif.
When it was hit, Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, another reporter, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa were inside a journalist’s tent near the hospital’s front entrance, according to Al Jazeera.
It claimed in a statement that Sunday’s “targeted assassination” was “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.”
Anas al-Sharif was said to have “served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which acknowledged that it had attacked him.
His “advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops” were also mentioned.
The incident was condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which also noted Israel had not shown any proof to support its accusations against al-Sharif.
“This is a pattern we’ve seen from Israel – not just in the current war, but in the decades preceding – in which typically a journalist will be killed by Israeli forces and then Israel will say after the fact that they are a terrorist but provide very little evidence to back up those claims,” Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s CEO, told the BBC.
Mohamed Moawad, the managing editor of Al Jazeera, told the BBC that al-Sharif was a recognized journalist and “the only voice” that the world needed to understand what was going on in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has prevented foreign media from openly reporting in Gaza throughout the conflict. As a result, a lot of media sources depend on local reporters in the area to provide coverage.
Regarding the Israeli hit, Moawad said, “They weren’t hiding from the front line; they were targeted in their tent.”
“The Israeli government wants to silence any channel of reporting from inside Gaza,” he said in an interview with The Newsroom show.
“This is something that I haven’t seen before in modern history.”
In the last minutes of his life, 28-year-old al-Sharif seemed to be writing on X about the heavy Israeli shelling in Gaza City. It seems like a buddy pre-wrote and published a post that was published after he was said to have passed away.
Men can be seen carrying the remains of the dead in two gruesome pieces of footage of the strike’s aftermath that BBC Verify has verified.
A guy in a media vest claims that one of the corpses is that of al-Sharif, while others yell out Qreiqeh’s name.
According to Al Jazeera, the strike claimed the lives of seven persons in all. A few hours after announcing that four of its employees had been slain, the broadcaster changed that to five.
The CPJ, the UN, and the Al Jazeera Media Network all released separate statements last month urging al-Sharif’s protection and warning that his life was in danger.
In July, IDF spokesman Avichai Adraee shared a video of al-Sharif on X and charged him with belonging to the military branch of Hamas.
It was described as “an unsubstantiated claim” and a “blatant assault on journalists” by Irene Khan, a UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression.
At the time, she said that there was “growing evidence that journalists in Gaza have been targeted and killed by the Israeli army on the basis of unsubstantiated claims that they were Hamas terrorists.”
The IDF claimed in its most recent statement that it had previously “disclosed intelligence” verifying al-Sharif’s military membership, including “lists of terrorist training courses,” and accused him of pretending to be a journalist.
The IDF has previously targeted and murdered journalists from Al Jazeera in Gaza, claiming they were connected to Hamas.
Ismael Al-Ghoul was sitting in his vehicle in August of last year when he was struck by an airstrike; his corpse was beheaded, as shown in graphic footage posted on social media. Also murdered were a child riding a bicycle and cameraman Rami al-Rifi.
Al Jazeera vehemently denied the IDF’s assertion that al-Ghoul participated in Hamas’ strikes against Israel on October 7, 2023.
186 journalists have been proven dead since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, the CPJ reports.
The situation is severe for the journalists who are still in Gaza. There is the risk of malnutrition in addition to airstrikes.
In a joint statement last month, the BBC and three news organizations—Reuters, AP, and AFP—expressed “desperate concern” for journalists in the Strip, who they claim are becoming more and more unable to provide for their families.
According to three freelancers the BBC uses for its coverage, they often spend days without eating, and one of them passed out while recording.
Human rights organizations and more than 100 international relief organizations have issued warnings about widespread famine in Gaza. However, Israel has charged the NGOs with “serving the propaganda of Hamas” since it regulates the flow of assistance supplies into Gaza.
Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught on southern Israel that resulted in over 1,200 fatalities and 251 hostage-takings, Israel began its operation.
According to the health ministry administered by Hamas, more than 61,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the start of the Israeli military assault.