Five Al Jazeera journalists were killed today by an Israeli air strike near the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Among them, an eminent Arab correspondent and journalist from Frontline News, Anas Al -Sharif, who – alongside Bisan Owda – received the Prize for the human rights defender of Amnesty International in December of last year.
Colleague Mohammed Qreiqeh and Ibrahim Zaher cameras, Mohammed Noufal and Moamin Aliwa were also killed, said the network. Two additional people were also killed, including a journalist from another point of sale.
In an official declaration of the diffuser, Al Jazeera said that he “condemns in the strongest terms the targeted assassination of his correspondents” by the Israeli colonists in “yet another flagrant and premeditated attack against press freedom”.
“The order to assassinate Anas Al Sharif, one of the most courageous journalists of Gaza, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the votes exposing the crisis and the occupation of Gaza,” added the network, calling the international community to “take decisive measures to stop this genocide and end the targeting of journalists”. “”
Last month, the committee to protect journalists published a report indicating that the organization is “seriously worried” of Al-Sharif’s security, claiming that the journalist “is targeted by a campaign of Israeli military smear, which, according to him, is a precursor of his assassination”, citing a similar declaration by Amnesty International Australia. CPJ has cited specific concerns about the Al-Sharif false allegations was a “Hamas terrorist”. A United Nations Declaration published a few days later echoed these feelings, saying that “online attacks and untrusted accusations of the Israeli army against the journalist of Al Jazeera Anas Al-Sharif are a blatant attempt to endanger his life and silence his report on the genocide of Gaza”, according to Irene Khan, the special rapporteur expression.
According to several media, the Israeli army said that it specifically targeted Al-Sharif, saying that it “was at the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas” and “was responsible for the progress of attacks of rockets against Israeli civilians and TDS troops”.
In the minutes preceding his murder, Al -Sharif posted to X: “If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to the ruins, the voice of its inhabitants, their faces erased – and the story will remember you as silent witnesses of a genocide that you have chosen not to stop.”
Throughout the war, Israel did not allow international journalists to present themselves freely in Gaza, with numerous publications based on local journalists or citizen journalists within Gaza for Coverage. In May 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government voted to close the offices of Al Jazeera.
According to the CPJ, 186 journalists have been killed since the start of the military offensive of Israel in Gaza in 2023 after the October 7 attack in Hamas.
