‘This massacre must end’

Anas al-Sharif, 28, a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent and one of the network’s most recognizable reporters in Gaza, was killed in an Israeli airstrike late Sunday while sheltering in a tent for journalists near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. 

Four other Al Jazeera media persons also lost their lives in the same attack: journalist Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and their assistant Mohammed Noufal. Freelance reporter Mohammad Al Khaldi was also confirmed among the casualties.

The Qatar-based network condemned the strike as a ‘deliberate assassination’ calling it a ‘desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza’.

Israel’s military later acknowledged carrying out the strike, alleging without any evidence that al-Sharif was affiliated with Hamas. Rights groups and media watchdogs have repeatedly criticised Israel for labelling journalists who are bringing news of the genocide in Gaza to the outside world as combatants without any substantiation.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had previously expressed serious concerns for al-Sharif’s safety, citing what it described as ‘a military-led smear campaign’ against him. CPJ warned last month that such tactics could foreshadow a targeted killing. The campaign against al-Sharif escalated after he broke down on live television while reporting on starvation in Gaza.

CPJ on Monday strongly condemned Israel’s 10 August airstrike which killed the six journalists in the deadliest single attack on media workers since the Israel-Gaza war began in 2023.

“Israel wiped out an entire news crew,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “It has made no claims that any of the other journalists were terrorists. That’s murder. Plain and simple.”

She added that Israel had shown a ‘longstanding, documented pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof’.

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‘It is no coincidence that the smears against al-Sharif ... surfaced every time he reported on a major development in the war,’ Qudah noted, pointing to his coverage of famine and humanitarian crises in Gaza.

Al-Sharif had himself said in a dispatch from Gaza in July: “They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally.”

Last week’s strike brings the total number of journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war to 192, including 184 Palestinian journalists. Thirteen journalists have been killed so far in 2025, up from 10 in 2024.

“If Israel can kill the most prominent Gazan journalist, then it can kill anyone,” Qudah warned. “This massacre must end.”

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Al-Sharif became widely known for a powerful moment earlier this year when, during a temporary ceasefire in January, he removed his protective vest during a live broadcast while surrounded by celebrating civilians.

Just minutes before his death, al-Sharif posted on X (formerly Twitter), describing ‘intense, concentrated Israeli bombardment’ targeting eastern and southern Gaza City with so-called ‘fire belts’.

Following his death, a final message was posted to his X account, reading: ‘I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.’

Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel were shut down last year, with Israeli authorities citing security concerns. The network’s West Bank offices were also raided by Israeli forces.

Due to ongoing restrictions, foreign journalists remain barred from entering Gaza, leaving Palestinian reporters as the primary source of independent reporting from inside the enclave. News organisations, including the International Media Support (IMS), recently urged Israel to allow greater humanitarian access and permit more journalists to report freely.

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