Israel is wiping out Gaza's journalists – and it's no longer even hiding it

The Guardian

2 days ago

Israel always boasted that it was the only country in the region to support press freedom. That boast rang hollow even before the current war. Now, it's not even pretending. On Sunday, Israel openly and brazenly killed six journalists as they were sheltering in a tent that housed reporters and media workers.
Israel accuses one of those journalists – Al Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif – of being a terrorist. It has not said what crime it believes the others have committed that would justify killing them. The laws of war are clear: journalists are civilians. To target them deliberately in war is to commit a war crime.
It is hardly surprising that Israel believes it can get away with murder. In the two decades preceding 7 October, Israeli forces killed 20 journalists. No one has ever been held accountable for any of those deaths, including that of the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whose killing in 2022 sent shock waves through the region. Abu Akleh, a dual US-Palestinian citizen, was a household name in the Middle East, just as al-Sharif became a familiar face for audiences for his coverage of Israel's assault on Gaza.
Israel first began making threats against al-Sharif shortly after the start of the war. The journalist reported receiving multiple phone calls from officers in the Israeli army instructing him to cease coverage and leave northern Gaza, as well as voice notes on WhatsApp disclosing his location. In December 2023, an Israeli airstrike hit his family home, killing the journalist's 90-year-old father.
A year later, the Israeli army alleged publicly that Anas al-Sharif was a terrorist – claims it repeated last month shortly after Anas al-Sharif exposed the rampant levels of starvation throughout Gaza as a result of Israel's refusal to allow in sufficient food aid. An Israeli spokesperson accused al-Sharif of lying about the famine – despite corroboration of widespread starvation by independent and international groups.
The Committee to Protect Journalists had seen this playbook from Israel before: a pattern in which journalists are accused by Israel of being terrorists with no credible evidence. Indeed, we were so concerned that al-Sharif was being targeted that we issued a public statement urging his protection.
Instead, al-Sharif was killed alongside his colleagues in an attack that Israel has openly admitted was aimed at killing the journalist. Al-Sharif is the 184th Palestinian journalist to have been killed by Israel since the start of the war and one of at least 26 journalists whom CPJ believes to have been deliberately targeted for their work as journalists. The others have certainly been killed by Israel but whether Israel did so in full knowledge they were journalists we have not been able to determine.
Israel denies it deliberately targets journalists. But the evidence shows otherwise. To date, Israel has provided no independently verifiable evidence that any of the journalists whom it has admitted deliberately targeting were terrorists. In one case, that of the Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul, the documents produced allegedly showed that al-Ghoul became the leader of a Hamas battalion – when he was 10 years old. The documents Israel has shared on al-Sharif, which it posted on X, show al-Sharif as receiving a Hamas salary in 2023. The documents do not provide evidence that he was an active member of the terrorist group although Israel said it had 'current intelligence' – which it did not publish – indicating al-Sharif was an active Hamas military wing operative.
It is no wonder that Israel is now so confident about killing journalists that it can admit to killing six journalists and media workers while only one was allegedly its target. The international community has been woeful in its condemnation of Israel's actions.
And that includes our own journalism community. Whereas the Committee to Protect Journalists received significant offers of support and solidarity when journalists were being killed in Ukraine at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the reaction from international media over the killings of our journalist colleagues in Gaza at the start of the war was muted at best. In some high-profile killings – such as that of the Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah – some governments trotted out well-worn defences of press freedom, but stopped well short of seriously censuring Israel. And few took any concrete steps – such as the halt of arms sales or the suspension of trade agreements – that might have forced Israel to change course.
Now, with more than 192 journalists and media workers killed since the start of the war – the deadliest conflict for journalists that we have ever documented – condemnation from individual journalists and some newsrooms has grown more vocal. But it is hard to see, if Israel can wipe out an entire news crew without the international community so much as batting an eye, what will stop further attacks on reporters.
Already our window into Gaza was becoming more and more limited. As Israel moves into the latest phase of its assault on the territory, it now risks closing altogether.
Jodie Ginsberg is CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists