Prominent Al Jazeera journalist killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza
Anas al-Sharif, known for documenting the release of hostages and for removing his body armour after a ceasefire, was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City along with three colleagues.
'Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh were killed along with camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal in an Israeli strike on Gaza,' said Al Jazeera.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the strike, claiming the reporter had 'served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation and was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF forces'.
In July, al-Sharif told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he lived with the 'feeling that I could be bombed and martyred at any moment'. He was widely known for his coverage of the war in Gaza, particularly his reporting on the release of Israeli hostages captured by Hamas.
In January this year, after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, al-Sharif drew widespread attention when, during a live broadcast, he removed his body armour while surrounded by dozens of Gaza residents celebrating the temporary halt in hostilities.
A few minutes before his death, al-Sharif posted on X: 'Breaking: Intense, concentrated Israeli bombardment using 'fire belts' is hitting the eastern and southern areas of Gaza City.'
An Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, Hani Mahmoud, said: 'This is perhaps the hardest thing I'm reporting about the past 22 months. I'm not far from al-Shifa hospital, just one block away, and I could hear the massive explosion that took place in the past half an hour or so, near al-Shifa hospital.
'I could see it when it lit up the sky and, within moments, the news circulated that it was the journalist camp at the main gate of the al-Shifa hospital.'
Al-Sharif and his colleagues have been reporting from Gaza since the beginning of the conflict. 'It's important to highlight that this attack is just a week after an Israeli military official directly accused Anas and directly ran a campaign of incitement on Al Jazeera and correspondents on the ground because of their work, because of their relentless reporting on the starvation and the famine and the malnutrition,' Mahmoud added.
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