Six Israeli hostages released by Hamas as Israel to free Palestinian prisoners
Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held hostage since 2014 and 2015, were handed over to International Red Cross officials in Rafah, southern Gaza.
Mr Mengistu and Mr al-Sayed will now make their way across the border into Israel. They are two of six Israeli hostages set to be released on Saturday.
Omer Shem Tov, 22, Eliya Cohen, 27, and Omer Wenkert, 23, who were all seized from the Nova Festival on 7 October 2023, are also set to be freed.Tal Shoam, 40, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri, is also set to be released.
The six Israeli hostages are the final living captives to be freed under phase-one of the fragile ceasefire.Under the agreement, 33 hostages were set to be released under the first phase, which comes to an end at the beginning of March.
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North Wales Chronicle
40 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Al Jazeera correspondents among journalists killed in Gaza City air strike
Anas al-Sharif and his Al Jazeera colleague Mohamed Qreiqeh were among those killed while sheltering outside the Gaza City Hospital complex late on Sunday. Officials at Shifa Hospital confirmed the deaths and said the strike also killed four other journalists and two other people. It also damaged the entrance to the hospital complex's emergency building. Israel's military described Mr al-Sharif as the leader of a Hamas cell – an allegation that Al Jazeera and Mr al-Sharif had previously dismissed as baseless. The incident marked the first time during the war that Israel's military has swiftly claimed responsibility after a journalist was killed in a strike. It came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused Mr al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In a July 24 video, Israel's army spokesman Avichay Adraee attacked Al Jazeera and accused Mr al-Sharif of being part of Hamas's military wing. Al Jazeera called the strike a 'targeted assassination' and accused Israeli officials of incitement, connecting Mr al-Sharif's death to the allegations that both the broadcaster and correspondent had denied. 'Anas and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices from within Gaza, providing the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground coverage of the devastating realities endured by its people,' Al Jazeera said in a statement. Apart from rare invitations to observe Israeli military operations, international media have been barred from entering Gaza for the duration of the war. Al Jazeera is among the few outlets still fielding a big team of reporters inside the besieged strip, chronicling daily life amid air strikes, hunger and the rubble of destroyed neighbourhoods. The broadcaster has suffered heavy losses during the war, including 27-year-old correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi, killed last summer, and freelancer Hossam Shabat, killed in an Israeli air strike in March. Like Mr al-Sharif, Mr Shabat was among the six that Israel accused of being members of militant groups last October. Hundreds of people, including many journalists, gathered on Monday to mourn Mr al-Sharif, Mr Qreiqeh and their colleagues. Mr al-Sharif reported a nearby bombardment minutes before his death. In a social media post that Al Jazeera said was written to be posted in case of his death, he bemoaned the devastation and destruction that war had wrought and bid farewell to his wife, son and daughter. 'I never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification,' the 28-year-old wrote. The journalists are the latest to be killed in what observers have called the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern times. The Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday that at least 192 journalists have been killed in Gaza. Mr al-Sharif began reporting for Al Jazeera a few days after war broke out. He was known for reporting on Israel's bombardment in northern Gaza, and later for the starvation gripping much of the territory's population. Mr Qreiqeh, a 33-year-old Gaza City native, is survived by two children. Both journalists were separated from their families for months earlier in the war. When they managed to reunite during the ceasefire earlier this year, their children appeared unable to recognise them, according to video footage they posted at the time. In a July broadcast he cried on air as a woman behind him collapsed from hunger. 'I am talking about slow death of those people,' he said at the time. Al Jazeera is blocked in Israel and soldiers raided its offices in the occupied West Bank last year, ordering them to close. Mr al-Sharif's death comes weeks after the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Israel had targeted him with a smear campaign. Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, on July 31 said that the killings were 'part of a deliberate strategy of Israel to suppress the truth, obstruct the documentation of international crimes and bury any possibility of future accountability'. The Committee to Protect Journalists said on Sunday that it was appalled by the strike. 'Israel's pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,' Sara Qudah, the group's regional director, said.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Anas al-Sharif: Who was the Al Jazeera journalist killed by Israel in Gaza?
Five Al Jazeera journalists were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza City on Sunday - among them 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who had reported prominently on the war since its other four Al Jazeera journalists killed were correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, Al Jazeera said. Two others were also killed, the broadcaster said. Hospital officials named Mohammed al-Khaldi, a local freelance journalist, as one of targeted attack on a tent used by journalists has drawn strong international condemnation including from the UN, Qatar where Al Jazeera is based, and media freedom says Sharif was "the head of a Hamas terrorist cell" but has produced little evidence to support that. Sharif previously denied it, and Al Jazeera and media rights groups have rejected the BBC understands Sharif worked for a Hamas media team in Gaza before the current some of his social media posts before his death, the journalist can be heard criticising for the Protection of Journalists CEO Jodie Ginsberg told the BBC there was no justification for Sharif's killing."International law is very clear on this point that the only individuals who are legitimate targets during a war are active combatants. Having worked as a media advisor for Hamas, or indeed for Hamas currently, does not make you an active combatant", she said."And nothing that the Israeli forces has produced so far in terms of evidence gives us any kind of assurance that he was even an active member of Hamas." The 'only voice' left in Gaza City Anas al-Sharif became one of Al Jazeera's most prominent reporters in Gaza during the in the densely populated Jabalia area in the north of the Strip, he worked for Al Jazeera for about two years, the broadcaster said."He worked for the whole length of the war inside Gaza reporting daily on the situation of people and the attacks which are committed in Gaza," Salah Negm, director of news at Al Jazeera English, told the with a four-year-old daughter, Sham, and a one-year-old son, Salah, he was separated from them for long stretches during the war while he continued to report from the north of the territory after refusing to follow Israeli evacuation orders.A joint Instagram post on his official account along with his wife's in January this year showed a picture of Sharif smiling with his two children. The caption said it was the first time he was meeting Salah, after 15 months of war. Sharif appeared frequently in live broadcasts, reporting extensively on the situation in reported on the targeting of his colleagues, including prominent Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who were killed in 2024 in an air strike in Gaza father had already been killed in December 2023 when the family home was targeted in an Israeli strike. Hours before he himself was killed, he posted about an intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza City. Mohamed Moawad, Al Jazeera's managing editor, described him as the "only voice left in Gaza City" - which Israel now plans to militarily occupy. Raed Fakih, input manager at Al Jazeera's Arabic-language channel, told the BBC Sharif was "courageous, dedicated, and honest - that's what made him successful as a journalist with hundreds of thousands of social media followers from all over the world".Fakih, who is in charge of the channel's bureaux and correspondents, added: "His dedication took him to areas where no other reporter ventured to go, especially those that witnessed the worst massacres. His integrity kept him true to his message as a journalist."Fakih said he spoke to Sharif many times on the phone throughout the war."In our last conversations, he told me about the famine and starvation he was enduring, about how hard it is to survive with so little food," he said."He felt he had no choice but to amplify the voice of the Gazans. He was living the same hardships they are living now, suffering from famine, mourning loved ones."His father was killed in an Israeli bombing. In that way, he was like all Gazans: carrying loss, pain, and resilience. And even in the face of death, he persisted, because this is a story that must be told."Mohammed Qreieh, 33, was a father of two from Gaza City, the Associated Press news agency reported. Like Sharif, he was separated from his family for months during the war as he reported from the front lines in northern Gaza, AP last live broadcast was on Sunday evening, minutes before he was targeted, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. Israel alleges Sharif led 'terrorist cell', with little evidence The Israeli military accused Sharif of posing as a journalist, saying he had "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas" and was responsible for launching rocket attacks at Israelis - but it has produced little evidence to support these a statement, the IDF said it had documents which "unequivocally prove" his "military affiliation" with Hamas, including "personnel rosters, lists of terrorist training courses, phone directories, and salary documents".It has publicly released some screenshots of spreadsheets apparently listing Hamas operatives from the northern Gaza Strip, noting injuries to Hamas operatives and a section of what is said to be a phone directory for the armed group's East Jabalia battalion. Israel had previously accused Sharif of being a member of Hamas's military wing - something he and his employer strongly denied. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media freedom group, said the allegations against him were "baseless" and called on the international community to intervene."Without strong action from the international community to stop the Israeli army... we're likely to witness more such extrajudicial murders of media professionals," RSF 200 journalists have been killed in the war Israel launched in response to Hamas's October 7, 2023 assault, according to from Al Jazeera accused the Israeli military of fabricating stories about journalists before killing them, to "hide what [it] is committing in Gaza". Israel has previously denied targeting described this as a "longstanding pattern" and referred to the Israeli military's killing of veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla, who was shot in the head during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank in Israeli military concluded that one of its soldiers probably killed her, but called her death unintentional. Al Jazeera said its evidence showed it was a "deliberate killing"."Here is a crucial fact: had Israel been held accountable for Shireen's assassination, it would not have dared to kill 200 journalists in Gaza," said Fakih. Sharif knew he risked being targeted by Israel after its Arabic-language spokesman posted a video of him in July and accused him of being a member of Hamas' military a post published on his X account, which was prewritten in the event of his death, Sharif said he "gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people... Do not forget Gaza."
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
What's the evidence which Israel says links Anas Al-Sharif to Hamas?
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 Anas Al-Sharif was one of five journalists among seven people killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City. The five worked for the broadcaster Al Jazeera. Israel says Sharif was the head of a Hamas cell but has only produced limited evidence about its claims. Al Jazeera rejected the accusations and said the strike was a "blatant" attack on press freedom. On this episode, Niall Paterson and Sky News international correspondent Diana Magnay look at Anas Al-Sharif's career, Israel's claims and the international condemnation of what happened.
