Prominent Al Jazeera The journalist Anas al Sharif, who had previously been threatened by Israel, was among the four colleagues in an Israeli air attack on Sunday, in an attack widely condemned by the media and rights groups.
Israel’s army said he attacked and killed Al Sharif, claiming that he had “headed a Hamas cell and participated in rocket attacks against Israel.”
Al Jazeera He rejected the claim and said that before his death, Sharif had also dismissed Israel’s previous claims that he was connected with Hamas.
Al Sharif, 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who died in a strike in a store near the Shifa hospital in the eastern city of Gaza, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera saying. A hospital official said that two other people were also killed in the strike.
Calling Al Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”, Al Jazeera He said the attack was a “desperate attempt to silence voices in advance of Gaza’s occupation.”
The other murdered journalists were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim photographers to Thaher and Mohamed Nofal and Mohammed Noufal.
Al Sharif was previously part of a Reuters Team, which in 2024 won a Pulitzer award in the last-minute news category for the coverage of the Israel-Ahamas conflict.
The Israeli army said in a statement that the Sharif was the head of a Hamas cell and “was responsible for advancing in rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and the troops of the FDI (Israelis)”, citing intelligence and documents found in Gaza as evidence.
Groups of journalists and Al Jazeera He denounced the murders.
A press freedom group and an expert in the United Nations previously warned that Al Sharif’s life was in danger due to his Gaza reports. The UN Special Rapporteur, Irene Khan, said last month that Israel’s statements against him were not based.
Al Jazeera He said that the Sharif had left a message of social networks to be published in the case of his death that said: “… I never hesitated to transmit the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, with the hope that God would witness those who remained silent.”
Last October, Israel’s army had appointed Al Sharif as one of Gaza’s six journalists who alleged that they were members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, citing documents that, he said, showed lists of people who completed training courses and salaries.
Al Jazeera They categorically reject the representation of the Israeli occupation forces of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of evidence manufactured, the network said in a statement at that time.
The committee to protect journalists (CPJ), who urged the international community to protect Al Sharif, said in a statement that Israel had not provided any evidence to support their accusations against him.
Israel’s pattern to label journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about his intention and respect for press freedom, said Sara Qudah, director of CPJ for the Middle East and North Africa.
Al Sharif, whose account X showed more than 500,000 followers, published on the platform minutes before his death that Israel had been bombing the city of Gaza intensely for more than two hours.
Hamas said the murder can indicate the beginning of an Israeli offensive.
“The murder of journalists and the intimidation of those who remain paving the way for an important crime that the occupation plans to commit in the city of Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he would launch a new offensive to dismantle the strengths of Hamas in Gaza, where a hunger crisis is intensifying after 22 months of conflict.
“Anas Al Sharif and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices in Gaza that transmit the tragic reality to the world.” Al Jazeera saying.
The Gaza Government Media Office said that 237 journalists have been killed since the war began on October 7, 2023. The committee of protecting journalists said that at least 186 journalists have been killed in Gaza’s conflict.
