Prominent Al Jazeera journalist among several killed in Israeli strike on Gaza press tent
Killed alongside the 28-year-old al-Sharif were Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and their assistant Mohammed Noufal. A seventh journalist, freelancer Mohammad al-Khaldi, who was in a nearby tent, was also killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In a statement, Al Jazeera, which is funded by the government of Qatar and has long had a fraught relationship with the Israeli government, described the killings as a 'targeted assassination' that was 'yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.'
'The order to assassinate Anas al-Sharif, one of Gaza's bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza,' the statement said, referring to the Israeli government's recently approved plans for its military to take over the enclave.
'Al Jazeera emphasizes that immunity for perpetrators and the lack of accountability embolden Israel's actions and encourage further oppression against witnesses to the truth,' the Al Jazeera statement said.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani also excoriated Israel in a statement on social media, saying in a statement on X that 'the deliberate targeting of journalists by Israel in the Gaza Strip reveals how these crimes are beyond imagination.'
Israel's military confirmed it conducted the attack, issuing a statement shortly before midnight Monday saying it struck 'the terrorist Anas Al-Sharif' which it said 'posed as a journalist' but 'served as the head of a terrorist cell' in Hamas.
It claimed that 'previously disclosed intelligence information' and 'many documents found in the Gaza Strip' confirmed Al-Sharif's involvement with Hamas. The documents, which the statement said included personnel rosters, lists of terrorist training courses, among others, 'provide proof of the integration of the Hamas terrorist' within Al Jazeera.
The documents were first released in October 2024 and accused six Al Jazeera journalists of involvement with Hamas or the Islamic Jihad militant group.
At the time, Al Jazeera, a U.N. expert, the Committee to Project Journalists and other groups cast doubt on the veracity of the documents. The U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Irene Khan, denounced Israel's accusations against Al-Sharif in July as 'unfounded' and a 'blatant attempt to endanger his life and silence his reporting on the genocide in Gaza.'
The Israeli military has previously made unsubstantiated claims that journalists it targeted and killed in Gaza were terrorists. In March, Israel killed Al Jazeera correspondent Hossam Shabat; in July 2024, it killed Ismail Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi.
Chief correspondent Wael al Dahdouh lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. Weeks after that, he was injured in a strike that killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa.
Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza even as it has targeted local reporters. Health authorities in Gaza say 237 journalists have been killed since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023. The Committee to Project Journalists says at least 186 have been killed.
Sunday's drone attack came weeks after the Israeli military stepped up its attacks on Al-Sharif, with the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman accusing the Al Jazeera correspondent in July of spreading 'propaganda' and taking part in 'a false Hamas campaign on starvation.'
Later that month, the Committee to Project Journalists said it was 'gravely worried' about Al-Sharif's safety. The group's Middle East and North Africa director, Sara Qudah, warned that the smear campaign against Al-Sharif represented 'an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif.'
In a statement on Monday, Qudah said, 'Israel is murdering the messengers.'
'If Israel can kill the most prominent Gazan journalist, then it can kill anyone. The world needs to see these deadly attacks on journalists inside Gaza, as well as its censorship of journalists in Israel and the West Bank, for what they are: a deliberate and systematic attempt to cover up Israel's actions.'
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was 'gravely concerned' over the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza; Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and other groups also issued condemnations. The U.S. government did not immediately provide comment.
Al-Sharif's killing drew tributes for a journalist who for many across the region came to embody Gaza's suffering.
On social media people shared poignant moments from his coverage, including when he covered his father's killing in an Israeli airstrike in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City in December 2023; a video when he was reunited with his daughter earlier this year; or when he almost broke down on air, his voice cracking.
'Keep on going, Mr. Anas,' says an unseen passerby. 'You are our voice.'
Video posted to social media showed crowds massing at the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery for the journalists' funeral. Footage depicted mourners crying and embracing each other, while others in the crowd carried Al-Sharif's shrouded corpse and chanted, 'With our soul and blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Anas.'
Al-Sharif is survived by his wife, daughter and son.
Minutes before the strike that killed him, Al-Sharif posted on X saying there was 'intense, concentrated Israeli bombardment' on Gaza City for two hours.
Al-Sharif's final message, written in April to be posted in the event of his death, read: 'If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.'
He continued: 'I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification — so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.'
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