'The Voice of Gaza': Slain Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif (1996-2025) - War on Gaza

Al-Ahram Weekly

4 days ago

Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif — long regarded as 'Gaza's voice' — was killed late Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a journalists' tent outside Gaza City Hospital, along with five other reporters and his teenage nephew, according to hospital officials.
The targeted airstrike killed Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qureiqa, photojournalists Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa, freelance reporter Mohamed Khalidi, and al-Sharif's 19-year-old nephew, Mosaab al-Sharif, according to officials at Shifa Hospital.
Minutes later, al-Sharif's verified X account published his last will and testament.
"This is my last will and message. If you receive these words, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice," read the will.
In the statement, dated 6 April 2025, al-Sharif reflects on his life in the Jabalia refugee camp and his work documenting Palestinian struggles amid nearly two years of an Israeli genocidal war on the strip.
'I have lived through the pain in all its details, and I have tasted pain and loss repeatedly. Despite this, I have never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without falsification or distortion...'
Anas Jamal Mahmoud al-Sharif was a Palestinian journalist and videographer for Al Jazeera Arabic, widely recognized for his frontline reporting from northern Gaza during the ongoing 22-month-long genocide.
For several months, the Israeli army accused al-Sharif of being a Hamas operative — claims international human rights organizations and Al Jazeera condemned as lies intended to justify the killing of journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had called on the international community to protect him.
Born in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza in 1996, al-Sharif had aspired to be a journalist since childhood. Photos circulating on social media show a young al-Sharif, only 12 years old, watching reporters work during the 2008–2009 Gaza war.
He earned a degree in mass communication, specializing in radio and television, from Al-Aqsa University, and began his career at the Al-Shamal Media Network before joining Al Jazeera.
In 2024, he was part of a Reuters team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of Israel's war on Gaza.
Since October 2023, al-Sharif became one of the most visible faces reporting on the war in Gaza, refusing to evacuate the north despite repeated Israeli orders and direct threats to his life.
He continued daily coverage through airstrikes, massacres, and mass displacement, often working under extreme danger and severe shortages of basic supplies. His reporting provided rare and crucial testimony from one of the world's most inaccessible war zones.
In early December 2023, al-Sharif cut short coverage of Israeli atrocities to bury his father, killed in an airstrike on the family home in Jabalia.
"We had to bury my father in a schoolyard nearby due to the intense bombing around Jabalia," al-Sharif said at the time. "The occupation does not want the picture in Gaza to get out, but we will continue in our coverage despite the blockade."
"I will continue to report on the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians in the strip until my last breath," he said, noting he had received repeated threats from the Israeli army for covering the war.
In his will, al-Sharif wrote: 'God knows that I gave everything I had—every effort, every ounce of strength—to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp. I hoped that God would prolong my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original hometown of Asqalan (al-Majdal), now under occupation,' the will read.
He added, 'I urge you to hold fast to Palestine—the crown jewel of the Muslim world and the heartbeat of every free person on this earth'.
'I urge you to remember its people, and its oppressed children who were denied the chance to dream or live in safety and peace, for their pure bodies were crushed beneath thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart, and their limbs scattered across walls.'
Al-Sharif continued: 'I urge you not to let chains silence you or borders hold you back. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our usurped homeland.'
'I urge you to take care of my family, …my beloved daughter Sham, my dear son Salah, to honour my beloved mother, and my beloved wife, Umm Salah (Bayan Khaled).'
Al-Sharif concluded: 'If I die, then I die steadfast upon my principles, bearing witness before God that I am content with His decree, believing in meeting Him, and certain that what is with God is better and everlasting'.
'O God, accept me among the martyrs, forgive me my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family.'
The will's last line simply reads: 'Do not forget Gaza.'
This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.
Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my… — أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) August 10, 2025
Shortly after the strike, the Israeli army confirmed it had targeted al-Sharif. In a Telegram post, it claimed he served as the head of a Hamas 'terrorist cell' — an accusation mirroring a broader Israeli pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence.
Al Jazeera condemned Israel's 'targeted assassination' of its journalists as a heinous crime and 'yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.'
The Government Media Office in Gaza said the killings brought the number of journalists killed since the start of Israel's genocidal war on the strip to 238.
On Monday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned what they described as the deliberate killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and five of his colleagues in Gaza by the Israeli army.
'In [Sunday's] deliberate attack, the Israeli army reproduced a known method already tested, notably against Al Jazeera journalists,' RSF said, referring to the killing of two reporters on 31 July last year. 'Without strong action from the international community to stop the Israeli army… we're likely to witness more such extrajudicial murders of media professionals.'
The CPJ also denounced the strike, saying journalists should never be targeted in war. 'Journalists are civilians. They must never be targeted in war. And to do so is a war crime,' CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg told AFP.
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