The Irish Independent's View: Israel's attempts to silence journalists in Gaza must be condemned
The UN has said at least 242 Palestinian journalists have died in the nearly two-year conflict. The attack on Mr al-Sharif and his colleagues came just hours after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called reports about Gaza a 'global campaign of lies'.
The media in the enclave have been heroic in exposing the privations of civilians amid the horrors of the war. International journalists are banned from covering the desperate scenes of suffering, as famine takes hold amid the continuing onslaught.
Al Jazeera – for which 28-year-old Mr al-Sharif worked – described him as 'one of Gaza's bravest journalists'. It condemned the attack as a 'desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the planned occupation of Gaza'. Israel has denied the claim. But the deaths of so many journalists have understandably raised a chorus of condemnation. According to Brown University's Watson Institute, the war has been 'quite simply, the worst-ever conflict for reporters'.
Tel Aviv must surely be aware that even in the depths of war, shooting the messenger never kills the story.
Mr Al-Sharif, it was claimed, was targeted after being accused of leading a Hamas cell and being involved in rocket attacks. But this was strongly rejected by Al Jazeera. Israel has previously denied targeting journalists. But human rights organisations and news agencies have rounded on Israel as the number of journalists killed in Gaza has steadily increased.
The UN human rights office said: 'We condemn the killing by Israeli military of 6 Palestinian journalists by targeting their tent, in grave breach of international humanitarian law. #Israel must respect & protect all civilians, including journalists.'
At the end of July, the outgoing board of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists' association put out a poignant statement. Their colleagues in Gaza were dying, they said. Not from bombs or bullets, but from starvation. 'Since AFP was founded in August 1944,' it read, 'we've lost journalists in conflicts, we've had wounded journalists and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can remember seeing a colleague die of hunger.'
The statement told how across Gaza, the last remaining journalists are crying out in despair. It included a post on X by Mr al-Sharif: 'I'm drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment. We stand in front of the camera trying to look stable, but the truth is that we are falling apart inside.' Little did he know he would be dead within weeks.
Politicians recognise that if you control the narrative you control minds. All the more reason why journalists must be protected as they go about their work in conflict zones. Thomas Hobbes said 'hell is truth seen too late'. Despite the world's witnessing what is happening in Gaza, for far too many, it is already too late.
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