Eminent journalist of Al Jazeera among several killed in an Israeli strike on the Gaza press tent

Amman, Jordan – On Sunday, the soldiers of Israel targeted a tent for journalists from Gaza City, killing seven people, including Anas Al-Sharif, a journalist for Al Jazeera who attracted millions of followers on social networks and emerged as a superior voice in the Arab world for his war chronicle in Gaza in the last 22 months.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, the Al Jazeera correspondent, the camera operators of Al Jazeera, and the operators of Ibrahim Zaher, Moamin Aliwa and their assistant Mohammed Noufal. A sixth journalist, freelancer Mohammad al-Khaldi, who was in a neighboring tent, was also killed, according to the committee to protect journalists.

In a statement, Al Jazeera, which is funded by the Qatar government and has long had a difficult relationship with the Israeli government, described the killings as a “targeted assassination” which was “yet another flagrant and premeditated attack on press freedom”.

“The order to assassinate Anas Al-Sharif, one of Gaza’s most courageous journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the crisis and the imminent occupation of Gaza,” said the declaration, referring to the strong ISRAEELian government for his soldiers to take control of the Palestinian.

“Al Jazeera stresses that immunity for the authors and the lack of responsibility enthaning Israel’s actions and encouraging the additional oppression against witnesses to the truth,” said the release of the diffuser.

The Prime Minister Qatari Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also excited Israel, affirming in a press release on X that “the deliberate targeting of journalists by Israel in the Gaza Strip reveals how these crimes are out of the imagination”.

The army of Israel confirmed that she had led the attack, publishing a statement shortly before midnight on Monday saying that she had struck “the terrorist Anas Al-Sharif” who, according to him, said “passed a journalist” but “was the leader of a terrorist cell” in the militant group Hamas.

He said that “previously disclosed intelligence information” and “many documents found in the Gaza Strip” confirmed the involvement of Al-Sharif with Hamas. The documents, which, according to the press release, included the lists of staff, the lists of terrorist training courses, among others, “provide proof of the integration of the terrorist of Hamas” within Al Jazeera.

The documents were published for the first time in October 2024 and accused six journalists from Al Jazeera of participation in Hamas or in the militant group of Islamic jihad.

At the time, Al Jazeera, as well as an expert from the United Nations, the committee to protect journalists and other groups made doubt about the veracity of documents. The Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on freedom of expression, Irene Khan, denounced the accusations of Israel against Al-Sharif in July as “unfounded” and a “blatant attempt to endanger his life and to silence his report on the genocide in Gaza”.

The Israeli army previously made baseless affirmations that the journalists it targeted and killed in Gaza were terrorists. In March, Israel killed the correspondent for Al Jazeera Hossam Shabat; In July 2024, he killed Ismail Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi.

The chief correspondent Wael Al Dahdouh lost his wife, his son, his daughter and his grandson on an Israeli air strike in October 2023. From weeks after that, he was injured in a strike that killed the cameraman Al Jazeera Samer Abu Daqqa.

Israel forbidden international journalists from entering Gaza when he targeted local journalists. Gaza health authorities say 237 journalists have been killed since the war on October 7, 2023. The committee to protect journalists stated that at least 186 were killed.

Sunday’s drone attack occurred for weeks after Israel intensified his attacks on Al-Sharif, the army’s Arab language spokesman accusing the Al Jazeera correspondent in July to disseminate “propaganda” and to participate in “a false Hamas campaign on famine”.

Later this month, the committee to protect journalists said that it was “seriously worried” of Al-Sharif’s security. Sara Qudah, the director of the Middle East group and North Africa, warned that the defamation campaign against Al-Sharif represented “an effort to make consent to kill Al-Sharif”.

In a statement on Monday, Qudah said: “Israel murdered the messengers.”

“If Israel can kill the most eminent Gazan journalist, then he can kill anyone. The world must see these deadly attacks against journalists inside Gaza, as well as its censorship of journalists in Israel and West Bank, for what it is: a deliberate and systematic attempt to cover the actions of Israel. “

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “seriously concerned” by the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza; Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, journalists without borders and other groups have also published convictions. The US government did not immediately provide any comments.

The murder of Al-Sharif attracted tributes to a journalist who, for many in the region, came to embody the suffering of Gaza.

On social networks, people shared poignant moments of his cover, including when he covered the murder of his father in an Israeli air strike in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza City in December 2023; A video when he found his daughter this year; Or when he almost broke down in the air, his voice cracks.

“Continue, Mr. Anas,” said an invisible passer -by. “You are our voice.”

The video published on social networks has shown that crowds were massaging in the Sheikh Radwan cemetery for journalists’ funerals. A video represented in mourning and kissing mourning, while others in the crowd wore the wrapped corpse of Al-Sharif and sang: “With our soul and our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Anas.”

Al-Sharif is survived by his wife, daughter and son.

A few minutes before the strike that killed him, Al-Sharif posted on X saying that there was “an intense and concentrated Israeli bombardment of Gaza City for two hours.

The final message of Al-Sharif, written in April to be published in the event of death, read: “If these words reach you, know that Israel has managed to kill me and silence my voice.”

He continued: “I experienced pain in all its details, I tasted suffering and loss several times, but I never hesitated to transmit the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification – so that Allah can testify against those who have remained silent, those who accepted our massacres, those who have stifled our breath, and the hearts are not highlighted and the hearts are not. Women, which did nothing to what we did not do more than women and women, half. “