Four Palestinians killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid in central Gaza
The victims were reportedly trying to access humanitarian aid when they were targeted by gunfire.
Casualties have been mounting in recent weeks as desperate civilians continue to risk their lives searching for food and assistance across Israeli military-controlled zones.
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Middle East Eye
38 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Gaza: Online tributes pour in for Al Jazeera journalists assassinated by Israel
Israel's targeted killing of several Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza has sparked an outpouring of grief and fury across social media platforms, with thousands calling for justice and the protection for Palestinian journalists. Prominent correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh were among those killed in the strike on a press tent near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City late on Sunday. The strike also claimed the lives of Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khalidi. On X, users shared heartfelt tributes to Palestinian journalists, honouring their courage and mourning their loss. Many reflected on the extraordinary risks they faced while reporting under relentless bombing, blockade, displacement and hunger amid Israel's ongoing assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, which leading legal and genocide experts, as well as rights organisations describe as genocide. 'In this world, journalism is a bigger crime than openly committing genocide," one user wrote. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "The grief from martyrdom of the [journalists] is so heavy." Comedian Sammy Obeid posted: "The only reason anyone kills journalists is because they're telling the truth." Many online tributes focused on Sharif, dubbed 'the voice of Gaza', one of the most recognisable faces in the Strip. He had refused to leave northern Gaza and continued reporting in grave conditions, even after Israel's forced evacuation orders. Users described him as "an eye carrying the truth through the fire" and that he 'bled for two years watching his people being genocided'. I've typed and deleted so many words to try to describe the pain, anger, and guilt. Just read his. We will miss you Anas. We bear witness to your sacrifice and against your murderer. May Allah have mercy on you and reunite you with all the pure souls before you. — Dr. Omar Suleiman (@omarsuleiman) August 10, 2025 UK independent MP Jeremy Corbyn slammed the killing of the journalists as "sickening beyond words". Israel's "deliberate and relentless killing of Palestinian journalists... is a desperate attempt to silence the truth about Israel's ongoing crimes against humanity," he added. Anas Al Sharif was 12 years old during Castlead, when Israel killed 1400 Palestinians over 3 weeks. Palestinian journalists were forged by the oppression they were born in and with their will, faith and work they broke it - they broke the oppressor & its oppression. They… — Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) August 11, 2025 Several people highlighted that the killings came just days after Israel's security cabinet approved a plan to occupy the Gaza Strip, beginning with an operation that aims to seize Gaza City and forcibly clear its approximately one million Palestinian residents. "They did so because they're now liquidating Gaza City, and want to silence the remaining witnesses," said British columnist Owen Jones on X. Anas spent months screaming that Israel has put a target on his head & that he's NEVER been part of Hamas or any other faction. He spent months pleading for protection & solidarity. Everyone who stood silent is to blame for his murder tonight! — Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) August 10, 2025 Palestinian journalist and human rights advocate Maha Hussaini stated that the murders came soon after Israel announced it would allow foreign reporters into Gaza after nearly two years of barring them. 'The Israeli occupation is entering a new stage of shifting the genocide narrative,' she wrote. "By erasing their [Palestinian journalists'] voices and replacing them with voices it can control, Israel is literally trying to rewrite reality." The outpouring of grief extended beyond Israel's latest attack on journalists to the scores of Palestinian journalists who have been killed before. Watching Al Jazeera and crying all over again. I go through the list of those I cared about in Gaza who are now gone, from Refaat to Ishmael Al Ghoul, to Hossam Shabat, to Anas and more, and can't believe this is the world we are living in. — Jill Rowan (@JillRowan1) August 11, 2025 Many users recalled veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen abu Akleh, who was killed in the occupied West Bank in 2022. Others re-shared stories of journalists Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour, who were killed earlier this year. 'The West simply shrugged' Western media outlets and journalists also came under intense criticism from social media users, who accused them of enabling the killings through one-sided reporting skewed in favour of Israel. "The blood of Anas al-Sharif and other slain journalists is on the hands of Western media figures who have justified Israel's crimes while ignoring, or excusing, the killing and intimidation of Palestinian journalists," said one user. 'Israel says' is not journalism. 'Israel says' is not journalism. 'Israel says' is not journalism. 'Israel says' is not journalism. 'Israel says' is not journalism. 'Israel says' is not journalism. 'Israel says' is not journalism. Without evidence it is stenography. — Lama Al-Arian (@lalarian) August 11, 2025 Independent journalist Barry Malone summed up the anger: 'A whole generation of reporters wiped out while many of their colleagues in the West simply shrugged.' One user called on international journalists to go on a strike to "force your bosses to pressure the Israeli government to allow entry to Gaza and protect Palestinian journalists". Others called on the international community to take action and tagged the accounts of international courts. I will not speak to foreign media about the killing of Palestinian journalists. I will not sit on your global channels to be part of a segment you'll forget by tomorrow. To you, we are just a headline — a tragedy to consume, not colleagues to defend. We are being hunted and… — Hind Khoudary (@Hind_Gaza) August 11, 2025 Gaza-based journalist Hind Khoudary wrote: "I will not speak to foreign media about the killing of Palestinian journalists... To you, we are just a headline - a tragedy to consume, not colleagues to defend. "We are being hunted and killed in Gaza while you watch in silence. For two years, your fellow journalists here have been slaughtered. What did you do? Nothing," she continued. According to Gaza's government media office, Israel has killed 238 Palestinian journalists since the start of the war in October 2023. Rights groups and press freedom advocates have described the war in Gaza as the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history.
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
'There is a holocaust in Gaza' graffitied on Western Wall
A 27-year-old man has been arrested by Israeli police on suspicion of spraying graffiti on the Western Wall in Jerusalem condemning Israel's war on Gaza. The suspect admitted to the act during a court appearance, though police were denied a request to extend his detention. He will instead be placed in a psychiatric facility by his parents for treatment. The graffiti, which included the phrase "there is a holocaust in Gaza" written in Hebrew, also appeared on the wall of the city's Great Synagogue. Graffiti appearing on Jerusalem's Western Wall condemns Israel's war on Gaza as a 'holocaust' (Social media) Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that the police will "act with lightning speed" to bring the offender to justice, while far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denounced the graffiti as a "sick antisemitic blood libel". "A holy place is not a place to express protests... The police must investigate this action, track down the criminals responsible for the desecration and bring them to justice," the Western Wall's Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said.
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Anas al-Sharif was murdered for being Gaza's voice
They killed him where the wounded cling to life. Outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Israeli army assassinated Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, in a direct bombardment of their media tent. This was no accident of war. It was a precision attack - the deliberate erasure of journalists who would not stop telling the truth. Sharif was a young Palestinian from Jabalia, in northern Gaza. He had been covering the war for 22 months. His only 'crime' was refusing to turn away, as he insisted on exposing the realities of genocide: the boundless killing, the calculated destruction of every thread of life. He worked without pause. Born in 1996, Sharif was three years old when the Second Intifada began; he was 10 when Israel first blockaded Gaza, 12 when the 2008 Gaza war erupted, and 18 during the 2014 assault. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters He was just 28 when Israel finally killed him on Sunday. His life was mapped by wars, each one deadlier than the last. For 22 months, Sharif's reporting entered millions of homes across the Arab world. More than a journalist, he became a trusted witness. His audience knew his grief as much as they knew his voice: the killing of his father by Israeli fire, and his separation from his mother, his daughter Sham, his baby son Salah - born during the genocide - and his wife Bayan. We followed him to the fiercest fronts in northern Gaza, where he worked through bombardment and starvation, never bending, never silenced. 'You are our voice' Sharif stepped into the void left by colleagues already murdered, including Al Jazeera's Ismail al-Ghoul, killed by Israeli fire. Another colleague, Wael Dahdouh, kept reporting after his wife, children and grandson were massacred, but later left Gaza to seek treatment for his own war wounds. Sharif inherited their mission: to tell Gaza's story as the world tried to look away. Now, with the killing of Sharif and his four colleagues, Israel has annihilated Al Jazeera's entire Gaza City crew. We remember the day he broke down live on air, voice trembling as he watched a woman collapse from hunger - and a passerby called out: 'Carry on, Anas, you are our voice.' Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war We remember the day in January when he removed his press vest live on camera to announce a ceasefire - a brief breath after relentless killing. We remember him being lifted onto the shoulders of grateful Palestinians in Gaza, honoured for his courage. For all of this, he became the sworn enemy of a genocidal state. Israeli intelligence threatened him openly. First came the killing of his father, after Sharif said he received calls from the Israeli military, warning him that he would be punished if he did not stop his coverage. It was a blood-stained warning. Then came the killings of his colleagues. Finally, the threat was carried out: his body and those of his four colleagues were shredded by an Israeli drone strike - as in thousands of other assassinations across Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Sharif and his colleagues were too dangerous to Israel's propaganda. The next wave, the Israeli government intends, will unfold in darkness Avichay Adraee, Israel's most venomous mouthpiece, targeted him by name. Late last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists warned: 'These latest unfounded accusations represent an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif.' Adraee is the new Joseph Goebbels, armed with social media instead of radio, marking targets for death with a smirk. Sharif saw friends and colleagues shot dead before his eyes. He carried their coffins, then returned to work with the dust of burial still on his hands. He drew strength from Shireen Abu Akleh, killed by Israel in Jenin in 2022. She was Christian; he was Muslim. Israel makes no distinction when waging war on the truth. If Israel had wanted to arrest him, it could have done so. Sharif's location was always known. He had no weapon. He often worked within sight of Israeli checkpoints. But they did not come to arrest; they came to kill. It was also preparation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war on Gaza has dragged on for 22 months without achieving its declared aims, except the mass killing of civilians and the obliteration of life's foundations. His coalition is fraying. Now, with cabinet approval, he is mobilising for the final invasion of what remains of Gaza: the culminating phase of ethnic cleansing. That campaign will be easier if no journalists remain to bear witness. Sharif and his colleagues were too dangerous to their propaganda. The next wave, the Israeli government intends, will unfold in darkness. Massacres in plain view Within hours of killing Sharif, the Israeli army issued a statement not of remorse, but of pride - boasting of the killing, smearing him as a 'terrorist', and producing 'evidence' too convenient to verify. It is the oldest trick of the state assassin: kill the journalist, then assassinate his name. And still, we are asked to believe that a man who spent more than 670 days reporting live for an international news network was secretly commanding a militant cell, between filming bombed hospitals and burying children. Some mainstream outlets repeated the libel, just as they repeated Netanyahu's lies hours earlier, denying starvation in Gaza, blaming Hamas for Israel's own destruction. Words dismantled by international reports, yet broadcast without shame. Sharif knew this might be his fate. A few months ago, he wrote his farewell: 'If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice … I entrust you with Palestine - the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.' Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif's final message before assassination by Israel Read More » Israel's goal in killing Sharif and his colleagues was not only to hide the truth of its massacres, but to target him personally - to break the spirit of Palestinians in Gaza, aware of their attachment to him, their trust in him, their pride in his courage. But this plan will fail. His death will not break Gaza's will. It will only make its people more determined to follow in his path. There is a video of Sharif with his daughter Sham, sitting close, smiling as he asks: '[US President Donald] Trump wants us to leave Gaza. Do you want to leave? … To Qatar? Jordan? Egypt? Turkey?' She shakes her head at each name. 'Why?' he asks. Her answer is simple: 'Because I love Gaza.' He pulls her into his arms, holding her with the tenderness of a father who knows her answer is the same one beating in his own chest. They carried him on their shoulders, just as they once carried Abu Akleh, while Israeli soldiers tried to strike her coffin to the ground - and in that act, they pledged there would rise thousands more guardians of a truth no bullet can kill. Sharif's killing is not an ending. It is the erasure of a witness before the curtain rises on what comes next: massacres planned in plain view, sanctioned by foreign allies, to drive Gaza's last survivors from their land. Sharif's blood is not Israel's burden alone. It stains the hands of every government that looked away; every newsroom that echoed the murderer's script; every leader who armed the hand that took aim at his heart. It runs through the fingers of all who watched - again and again - as Israel hunted Gaza's reporters, and did nothing but let the lens go dark. This was not just the killing of a man. It was the silencing of a voice the world needed. And it was made possible by a chorus of blind eyes, by a world that let Israel slaughter journalist after journalist, and walk away untouched. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
