Global outrage is mounting following Israel’s “assassination” of five Al Jazeera journalists in a targeted attack on Gaza City.
Israel’s military claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, which killed correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and their assistant Mohammed Noufal.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, calling for global action against the Israeli regime for its war crimes.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was “appalled” by the assassination of Al Jazeera journalists.
CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said, “Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted. Those responsible must be held accountable.”
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the attack, calling it a “bloody crime” of assassination.
Rights advocates said Al Sharif had been targeted for his frontline reporting on the Gaza war.
Al Jazeera Media Network itself said it condemned in the strongest terms the targeted assassination of its Gaza correspondents and photographers by Israeli forces, calling it a “desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza.”
“Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif has been killed alongside four colleagues in a targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City,” the Qatar-based broadcaster said.
“Al-Sharif, 28, was killed on Sunday after a tent for journalists outside the main gate of the hospital was hit. The well-known Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent reported extensively from northern Gaza.”
A short while before being killed, al-Sharif, the well-known Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who covered news from northern Gaza, wrote on X that the Israeli forces had launched intense, concentrated bombardment – also known as “fire belts” – on the eastern and southern parts of Gaza City.
In a final message, written on April 6, to be published in the event of his martyrdom, al-Sharif said he “lived the pain in all its details” and “tasted grief and loss repeatedly.”
“Despite that, I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, and those who suffocated our very breaths,” he said.
“Not even the mangled bodies of our children and women moved their hearts or stopped the massacre that our people have been subjected to for over a year and a half.”
In July, the CPJ issued a statement calling for al-Sharif's protection as the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee stepped up online attacks on the reporter by alleging that he was a Hamas fighter.
The Israeli military’s Sunday attack was the latest to see journalists targeted in the 22-month war on Gaza.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed over 230 journalists, making it the deadliest war for media workers ever recorded.
With Gaza sealed off amid the Israeli genocide, many media groups around the world depend on photo, video, and text coverage of the onslaught provided by Palestinian reporters.
