Five Al Jazeera journalists were killed today by an Israeli airstrike near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital. Among them was prominent Arabic correspondent and frontline news reporter Anas al-Sharif, who — alongside Bisan Owda — received Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defender Award in December of last year.
Colleague Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa were also killed, the network said. Two additional people were also killed, including a journalist from another outlet.
In an official statement from the broadcaster, Al Jazeera said it “condemns in the strongest terms the targeted assassination of its correspondents” by the Israeli settlers in “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.”
“The order to assassinate Anas Al Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza,” the network added, calling additionally on the international community to “take decisive measures to halt this ongoing genocide and end the deliberate targeting of journalists.”
Just last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report saying the organization is “gravely worried” about al-Sharif’s safety, saying the reporter “is being targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign, which he believes is a precursor to his assassination,” citing a similar statement from Amnesty International Australia. CPJ cited specific concerns regarding false allegations al-Sharif was a “Hamas terrorist.” A statement from the United Nations published days later echoed these sentiments, saying “online attacks and unfounded accusations by the Israeli army against Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif are a blatant attempt to endanger his life and silence his reporting on the genocide in Gaza,” per Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression.
According to multiple media outlets, Israeli military said it targeted al-Sharif specifically, claiming he “served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas” and “was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”
In the minutes leading up to his killing, al-Sharif posted to X, “If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.”
Throughout the war, Israel has not allowed international journalists into Gaza to report freely, with many publications relying on local reporters or citizen journalists within Gaza for coverage. In May 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s offices.
According to the CPJ, 186 journalists have been killed since the start of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in 2023 following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
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