Al Jazeera journalists hold vigil for staff slain in Gaza
Anas al-Sharif, a recognisable face on the channel, correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa were killed in the Israeli attack on Sunday.
Scores congregated in an Al Jazeera Arabic studio and newsroom in the Qatari capital to condemn the killings, promising to continue their reporting on the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Some held pictures of the journalists killed in a strike on their tent in Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Among those present in Doha were Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh, whose wife and children were killed in Israeli strikes, and camera operator Fadi Al Wahidi who was left paralysed by a gunshot wound to the neck while reporting in the territory.
"Every time we lose a loved one and a colleague, we lose a part of this... family of journalists. This is something extremely difficult and painful," Al-Dahdouh told AFP following the vigil.
"We stand in solidarity... and we take whatever action we can, but blatant attacks against international law and against everything continue," he added.
The Israeli military confirmed that it had carried out the attack on Al-Sharif, alleging that he was a "terrorist" who "posed as a journalist".
Tamer Almisshal, a senior presenter at Al Jazeera overseeing coverage in Gaza, told AFP the Israeli assertions were "fabricated" and "baseless", adding that it was not the first time the Qatar-based channel's journalists in Gaza had been accused of being affiliated with militant groups after being killed.
"Israel, by killing and targeting our correspondents and our team in Gaza, they want to kill the truth," Almisshal added.
In July, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for Al-Sharif's protection and accused the Israeli military of carrying out online attacks on the reporter by claiming that he was a member of Hamas.
With Gaza sealed off, many media groups around the world, including AFP, depend on photo, video and text coverage of the conflict provided by Palestinian reporters.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began, including several Al Jazeera journalists.
Al-Dahdouh explained those journalists still in Gaza "face attacks, murder, fear, hunger, displacement, thirst... after a while, we couldn't recognise many of our colleagues because they had simply lost half their body weight".
"Their love for this profession... keeps them connected and carrying out this duty," he added.
© 2025 AFP
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France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Why Australia is risking US anger to recognise the state of Palestine
Australia will add its voice to a growing chorus of Western nations that will formally recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Coming on the heels of similar declarations from France and Canada, as well as the conditional recognition floated by the UK, centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's announcement on Monday may not have come as much of a surprise. But while a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict has enjoyed bipartisan support from Albanese's Labor Party and the right-wing Liberal-National Coalition for decades, both sides have insisted that any such recognition come at the end of an eventual peace process – a caveat that has kept any party from pushing for the recognition of a Palestinian state for some 77 years. 'A two-state solution is humanity's best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,' Albanese said in his announcement. 'The situation in Gaza has gone beyond the world's worst fears,' he said. 'The Israeli government continues to defy international law and deny sufficient aid, food and water to desperate people, including children.' Read moreNearly 12,000 children under five face acute malnutrition in Gaza, WHO says More than 2 million people in Gaza are facing famine due to Israel's deliberate withholding of much-needed humanitarian aid, according to UN agencies. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week announced a renewed military offensive in the devastated Palestinian territory to seize control of Gaza City. More than 61,000 Palestinians have already been killed by Israel's military onslaught in Gaza since the deadly Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023. For a country that has for decades marched in lockstep with US foreign policy in the Middle East, the decision could leave Australia out of favour with its closest security partner. The US also remains Israel's staunchest military and political backer, and the administration of President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused countries that have recognised a Palestinian state of 'rewarding Hamas' for the militant group's attacks on Israel. Albanese said that he has assurances from the Palestinian Authority that Hamas will play no role in any eventual state. Conservative opposition leader Sussan Ley was quick to slam the announcement, saying the decision 'puts Australia at odds with the United States of America, our most important ally, and the most consequential player in the conflict in Gaza'. Martin Kear, a sessional lecturer at the University of Sydney's Department of Government and International Relations and the author of 'Hamas and Palestine: The Contested Road to Statehood', spoke to FRANCE 24 about some of the reasons why the Australian government has joined the growing number of Western countries formally recognising a Palestinian state. FRANCE 24: Albanese comes from Labor's left faction and co-founded the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine very early on in his political career. But how has the Labor Party positioned itself on the Israel-Palestine question under his government? From the very beginning, there's always been factional support within the Australian Labor Party for recognising a Palestinian state that existed even before the October [2023] attacks. The government has kept a fairly steady diplomatic line – in line with a lot of other states, most other democratic states – in support of Israel. But obviously, as the war has dragged on, and there's been more and more evidence of systematic human rights abuses – the International Criminal Court investigations, the International Court of Justice investigations and what we're seeing on the television each night, particularly of emaciated children – I think there was a groundswell of support, not just within Australia but within the international community, that things needed to change. And extra levers of pressure placed on Israel to not only stop the war, but to recognise the validity of the two-state solution. Now, I would say that there's been a bit of commentary in Australia about the government moving away from the position of the US, and while I think that's certainly valid, it's not unusual for Labor governments to strike a particularly independent foreign policy that, while it doesn't run contrary to the United States, certainly differs in some areas from the United States … . [Previous Labor governments have been] supportive of the United States when [they] wanted to support the United States, but took differing views when [they] needed to. So that's very much in line with what this government is doing here – it's saying, 'These are Australian positions, we're not disagreeing with the United States, we're simply taking a different point of view on this particular issue.' Whereas previous conservative governments would be more in line with keeping tightly within the foreign policy confines of the United States. 'Genocide': Unless West forces Israel to change course, 'ethnic cleansing in Gaza will persist' To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again © France 24 07:50 We're seeing a more unpredictable US foreign policy, both towards traditional US adversaries but especially towards US allies. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been critical of France's decision to recognise a Palestinian state. What potential repercussions do you foresee for Australia charting an independent course in the face of the perhaps more belligerent approach that we've seen from the Trump administration so far? There are positives and negatives with that. Because President Trump takes a very different view – he's not beholden to traditional diplomatic norms, he reads the situation probably differently to most other presidents in our lifetime. So while that unpredictability can be a source of tension, I also think it creates an opportunity for other states to say, 'OK, we can chart a different course from the United States, because someone's got to actually step up and do something.' And I do wonder to what extent one of the things influencing the leadership of the states of France and Britain, Canada, Australia, potentially New Zealand, is the domestic political pressure on governments to do something and not just simply wait for the United States to do something or not do something. There are many things they're trying to do with this recognition, but I think the unpredictability of the United States of the Trump administration creates an opportunity for these states to take a more direct diplomatic response than they might have otherwise done with some other president. Could you expand on the ways in which that domestic pressure has evolved since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks? In the immediate aftermath, Albanese took a very disapproving line on demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza. How has that persistent popular mobilisation, and the more passive sense of disapproval towards Israel's campaign in Gaza, changed over the years, and to what extent do you think it has influenced the government's decision? It's really difficult to tell to what degree it influenced the decision. There have been regular protests, weekly protests in Sydney, for example, of people protesting the excesses of Israel. As we started getting more and more information about what Israel was doing, there was more and more disquiet amongst the community about the excesses, and really the unwillingness of democratic leaders to openly criticise or do anything substantive to another member of the club. Recently we had the Australian federal election and while that election actually turned out to be a landslide in favour of the Labor party, in the lead-up to that election there was a lot of commentary about seats held by key ministers of the Albanese government that may have been at threat because they held large Muslim communities, large Arab communities, and whether those people would vote for independents, because there are quite a few independents that ran in those seats against these ministers. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again © France 24 06:09 I'm not privy to the polling that the party was doing, but certainly there was a lot of media commentary about the effect that the government's lack of response to the excesses of what was happening in Gaza may have on the government. That was also alongside this fairly strong movement within the Australian Labor Party that has long been advocating for the recognition of Palestine as a way of pushing forward the two-state solution. To get some sort of movement, because it's essentially been dead – the negotiation process around that has been dead since 2014, maybe even earlier. I think [former US president Barack] Obama might have been the last one who dipped his toe into that particular morass, and that failed again. There's lots of little individual contributing factors, and I think the government just having a sense of moral outrage at what was actually happening – the nightly visions of emaciated children turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Though there have been media reports here saying the move has been diplomatically in line probably since the start of this year. So, obviously, there's been disquiet within the government about what's happening – and their unwillingness to openly and publicly express that disquiet has been a cause of frustration for people. To what extent do you see this decision as being shaped by a sense of strength in numbers? French President Emmanuel Macron tried very publicly to encourage other Western democracies to recognise a Palestinian state. Very much so. France is one of the leading countries in the EU. Germany, certainly under this chancellorship, has been quiescent and unwilling – and I understand that – to really take a forceful view. And they've been overly supportive of Israel, not just diplomatically, but monetarily and militarily, whereas France has very much taken the opposite [stance]. It's taken a far more independent line and a far more critical line [on] Israel for longer. [France is] a key member of the EU that sits on the UN Security Council along with the UK – so there's lots of diplomatic cover, and strength in numbers. And perhaps the diplomatic moves from the beginning of this year were getting as many democratic states as possible in line. Now we've got France, Canada, Australia, potentially New Zealand, and maybe even the UK moving towards recognition of Palestine. I have my doubts about whether the UK will actually do it, simply because of domestic politics in Britain and the politics within the Labour Party in Britain. Jeremy Corbyn – one of the reasons he was ousted was because he was perceived to be anti-Semitic. And that anti-Semitism was basically his strident support of the Palestinian state. So there's a question mark over Britain, but certainly I think there's a strength in numbers and a shoring up of numbers, and so there's some sort of coordinated effort ... some sort of momentum, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the United States has been kept in the loop throughout this. I don't think any of this has really caught the Trump administration by surprise. REPLAY - Netanyahu defends his planned military offensive in Gaza before world press To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again © France 24 16:53 So everyone's been kept in the loop, and perhaps Trump is just keeping his powder dry and seeing what happens, seeing the winds of fate and seeing what's in it for him. Because he's a very transactional politician, so I think if he sees there's domestic advantages, he may make a move or may start putting additional pressure on Netanyahu – because I don't think there's any love lost between the two. It's a very big step for Australia and the other states to actually come out and say 'we're recognising Palestine' and everything that goes along with that, like pushing this matter forward. Let's see what can happen in terms of a reformation of the Palestinian Authority, whether there are new elections. So there are some potential positives. But I just wonder how much will actually be done, particularly when Israel will do everything in its power to ruin whatever plans they have. You've talked about the domestic pressures that the Labor Party has been facing. Taking a more cynical view, to what extent could we read this decision to formally recognise a Palestinian state as part of an effort to defuse those critiques that Albanese's government has been too slow to admit what Israel has been doing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, without necessarily changing anything on the ground? What percentage of the pie that mitigation makes up – who knows? But I certainly think that's one of the calculations. Because in those states that are going to be recognising Palestine, there's a lot of domestic discontent. I suspect it's the same in France, with a large Muslim community. There's certainly dissent in Britain – there's reports on the news tonight that 500 people were arrested because they were protesting under the banner of Palestine Action (an activist group the UK proscribed as a terrorist organisation for having sprayed red paint in the engines of Royal Air Force planes to protest Britain's military support of Israel). Over 100,000 people marched [last week] over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of the Palestinians. So this is a way of governments saying, 'We understand your distress, we're responding to that.' But what happens next? Because from my personal perspective, the two-state solution died in June 1967 when Israel captured East Jerusalem, because Palestinians won't consider a state without East Jerusalem as its capital and Israel will never relinquish control of East Jerusalem. So what are we actually talking about, at the end of the day? When Albanese talks about having assurances from the Palestinian Authority that there will be a demilitarised state with Hamas having no role in it, it does seem difficult to imagine what that process looks like. We need to make Hamas a part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Because if they're part of the problem, they're outside the tent pissing in – excuse my language – and if we make them part of the solution, then Palestinians will see any elections as being legitimate. If Hamas are excluded, they simply won't. And we run a very great risk of repeating the mistakes of Iraq and Afghanistan. Hamas is still popular – it's more popular than Fatah. So we need to respect the Palestinian view. Now, if Hamas participates in elections and Palestinians don't vote for them, then that's a fair bump – play on. But I think in any elections there that Hamas participates in – and that's another question in and of itself – then I don't think Fatah wins. But that's crystal balling.
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Prominent US rabbi assaulted at Vienna rally questions police actions
In the latest incident that could add fuel to the debate about the rise of antisemitism in Europe, a prominent US rabbi was assaulted at a pro-Palestine rally in Vienna on Friday and then taken to a police station for questioning by Austrian police officers. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, also known in the US as 'America's Rabbi', told Euronews that while holidaying in Vienna with his wife he came across the rally and decided to confront what he said were 'Islamists who want Jews murdered', whom he differentiated from Muslim faithful, whom he called 'brothers'. Videos posted by Boteach online show that he was surrounded by demonstrators during a heated exchange, and one of them kicked him in the leg from behind, after which another person grabbed him by his shirt collar. In the video, Boteach called on the police to arrest the men, but officers were seen surrounding him to question him instead. Boteach said the officers told him, 'Calm down or you will be arrested'. A post shared by Rabbi Shmuley (@rabbishmuley) Still, he was led to the police station for identification and further questioning, leaving him "humiliated and shocked that this can happen in 2025 in Europe just for wearing a kippah', he told Euronews. The police officers refused to identify themselves, he stated. For Boteach, the question remains why he was taken in for questioning and not all who participated in the scuffle. 'I could not believe that right after standing passively as a Jew in Vienna, bothering absolutely no one and suddenly being threatened with murder simply wearing a kippah, I was now being threatened with arrest by the Austrian police," rabbi Boteach explained in a personal post online. While he told the police that it was minutes from Shabbat, the rabbi said the officers took a statement from him over his acting 'cold and aggressive' and claiming it was for a report of assault. But when they saw the videos of the incident, corroborated by witnesses, Boteach said the officers admitted he was the victim and made him sign a statement. 'At the end of the two hours, the supervising officer who had been unnecessarily cold and even threatening to me, came to the interview room and was warmer. Perhaps he had googled me. I don't know," Boteach said. "He explained that he was also a minority who had immigrated to Austria. He said he understood the threat to the Jewish community. He and I shook hands. But why then did they treat me for hours as a would-be criminal,' he asked. A spokesperson for the Austrian police told Israeli news agency JNS on Sunday that 'a brief disturbance occurred involving one person" and that "police officers on site prevented any further confrontation." Investigation is currently under way on suspicion of attempted assault and property damage by unknown perpetrators, the spokesperson explained. No arrests were made at the gathering, they further added. Antisemitism in Europe keeps growing Leading European and international organisations have warned for months of increased antisemitic sentiments on the continent since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)'s J7 Task Force report published in May, violent antisemitic incidents have risen across seven countries with the largest Jewish communities outside of Israel, which include France, Germany and the UK. The report stated that attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses, alongside individuals, have increased significantly, in some cases more than doubling in 2023 compared to the previous year. In Germany, antisemitic incidents increased 75% from 2021 to 2023, 185% in France and 82% in the UK. Police statistics showed 3,200 crimes motivated by antisemitism occurred between 1 January 2024 and 7 October 2024 in Germany alone, according to the report. Another survey by US campaign group the Anti-Defamation League from January has found that around half of the world's adult population holds deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes, double the number from a decade ago. In some European countries, as many as four-fifths of the adult population believe in tropes such as that Jews control the media and business, or are responsible for most wars. Even prior to the war, antisemitism was present on European soil. According to a survey carried out by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights before the war started, 96% of respondents said they experienced antisemitism in Europe between January and June 2023. Considered by US media as 'the most famous Rabbi in America', Boteach decried his ordeal in Europe as a warning. 'Vienna must choose: Will it be the city of Mozart, of Schubert, of Mahler — or will it remain the city where Jews are attacked in the streets and statues of Jew-haters stand tall?,' he said, adding that he reached out to his 'friends at the highest levels of the American government and the Trump cabinet' because 'if Austria allows such attacks to pass without serious consequences, it is sending a clear message to its Jewish community: you are on your own.' 'In city after city, from Paris to London to Brussels, anti-Israel rallies have become open calls for violence against Jews," he explained. "The world looks away. The police stand back — or, as in my case, turn their suspicion on the victim," Boteach concluded.
Euronews
4 hours ago
- Euronews
Reactions pour in criticising Israel's killing of Al Jazeera crew
Five staff members of the Doha-based broadcaster, Al Jazeera, including correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, were killed in the early hours of Monday in a targeted Israeli strike. Al-Sharif was widely regarded by many as "the voice of Gaza" and has garnered popularity across the Arab world for his work covering the war in Gaza. Al-Sharif predominantly operated out of the north of the Strip, mainly Gaza City, where he covered everything from the raids of the al-Shifa Hospital, to Israeli ground operations and the blockade on aid. Israel accused him of being the "head of a terrorist cell" linked to Hamas, but provided no evidence to support the claim. After his death, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) posted on X, alleging that al-Sharif was masking as a journalist. Al Jazeera slammed Israel for the deliberate targeting of its journalists, calling it "a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza." The broadcaster also noted that al-Sharif was not the first of its journalists to be targeted and killed for their reporting in Gaza and called on Israel to produce "real evidence" to support their claims of their journalists being Hamas operatives. The IDF did provide a spreadsheet alleging a link between al-Sharif and Hamas, which has been widely criticised on social media as people demand Israeli officials provide hard evidence. German, UK governments condemn killing Officials from Germany and the United Kingdom have condemned Israel's targeting and killing of the media crew. German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Josef Hinterseher said his government was dismayed over the killing, adding that Israel has several questions it must provide answers to. He stressed that Israel must explain why it disregarded the protected status of the journalist it targeted and why the attack also killed his colleagues. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said that he is "gravely concerned" about the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza, asserting that journalists must not be targeted for carrying out their duties. The European Union The EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, has also spoken about the killings. In a post on her social media platforms, Lahbib said she was "horrified" to learn of the killing of the Al Jazeera journalists. "A direct hit on freedom of the press. Since Oct. 2023, at least 186 journalists have been killed. Civilians must be protected, access secured & the press safeguarded. Always," she added. Qatar Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani blasted Israel for its killing of journalists working for the Doha-based broadcaster. In a statement, he said Israel continues to "commit crimes beyond imagination" and criticised the international community and its laws and structures for its inability to "stop this tragedy." The Qatari premier and top diplomat stressed that journalism is not a crime while highlighting that deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime. International organisations The United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned the killing of al-Sharif and the Al Jazeera team, calling it a "grave breach of international humanitarian law." "Israel must respect and protect all civilians, including journalists," it said in a social media post, noting that at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. "We call for immediate, safe and unhindered access to Gaza for all journalists," the office added. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists also issued a statement of condemnation following the attack. In a post on X, the organisation slammed Israel for the fatal air strike without providing credible evidence to verify their claims of his Hamas links. They also paid tribute to al-Sharif's journalistic work in the enclave. "A journalist of a rare calibre" Euronews spoke with a member of senior management at Al Jazeera and a former colleague of al-Sharif's, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to a lack of authorisation to comment publicly. He said it was appalling how the international community and media organisations continue to provide impunity for Israeli crimes. "[The assassination] is a test of the world's conscience, but before that, it is a test of the conscience of journalists worldwide," he said. "It is deeply saddening to see today some international media outlets choosing to ignore his killing at the hands of a brutal regime and even echoing the Israeli narrative accusing him of leading a Hamas cell, once again without presenting a single piece of evidence." He added that the evidence Israel provided is not logical, stating that al-Sharif's duties saw him work for long periods, sometimes exceeding 12 hours a day, making it almost impossible to "run a terrorist cell" simultaneously. "Anas spent more than two years almost permanently stationed in the journalists' tent, appearing repeatedly on television, anywhere between 10-15 live crosses daily, and during that time leading no other 'secret' life," he added. They also spoke of al-Sharif's journalistic integrity and accuracy, characteristics he was renowned for since joining the broadcaster. "Anas al-Sharif joined Al Jazeera years ago, initially as a fact-checking investigator in Gaza, where he was of great help to me and my department," he said. "Since he transitioned to television news, and began appearing on screen, no one has been able to question the accuracy of any piece of information he reported. He was thus a model of a journalist of a rare calibre, in an era where falsification has become widespread." Al-Sharif's former colleague says it's "a disgrace" for those who claim to defend the truth to resort to what he called "baseless accusations coming from a party that commits its crimes live on air."
