IMS condemns Israel’s targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza City airstrike

Twenty-eight-year-old Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was one of the network’s most recognisable faces in Gaza and now his name is added to the long list of media workers killed during the genocide. He was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night. Four other Al Jazeera staff members were also killed, including Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa and their assistant Mohammed Noufal.

Mohammad Al Khaldi, a freelance reporter was also killed during this attack.

Al Jazeera condemns Israel’s assassination of five of its staff, calling it a “desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza.”

Israel’s military claimed responsibility for the targeted attack, accusing al-Sharif of being a Hamas fighter while providing no credible evidence to support this. Israel has a well-established history of labelling journalists as terrorists without presenting credible evidence to support such claims.

Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “gravely worried” about Anas al-Sharif’s safety, accusing the Israeli military of targeting him with a “smear campaign, which he believes is a precursor to his assassination.” According to CPJ the Israeli military had “stepped up” its campaign to discredit the reporter “since the journalist cried on air while reporting on starvation in Gaza.”

Last year, Israel shut down Al Jazeera in the country and shuttered its offices on security grounds, and Israeli forces later raided the channel’s offices in the West Bank.

Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza to report independently from the enclave, so most of the reporting has come from Palestinian reporters. As Palestinians in Gaza are being starved, reporters have talked about losing the strength to work and IMS and many other news organisations just last week (7 August) called on Israel to let in more aid and reporters.

In January this year, after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, al-Sharif drew widespread attention when, during a live broadcast, he removed his body armour while surrounded by dozens of Gaza residents celebrating the temporary halt in hostilities.

A few minutes before his death, al-Sharif posted on X: “Breaking: Intense, concentrated Israeli bombardment using ‘fire belts’ is hitting the eastern and southern areas of Gaza City.”

In a final message which was posted to al-Sharif’s X account after his death, the reporter said that he had “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.”

According to CPJ a total of 186 journalists have been killed since 7 October 2023. At least 178 of those journalists are Palestinians killed by Israel.

To date no one has been held accountable for any of the targeted killings of journalists.