Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif among journalists killed in Israeli strike

Israel’s military said it targeted and killed a Hamas cell leader posing as an Al Jazeera journalist in an airstrike on Gaza City on Sunday, but rights advocates said he had been targeted for his front-line reporting on the Gaza war and that Israel’s claim lacked evidence.

Anas al-Sharif, 28, was among a group of five Al Jazeera journalists who died in a strike on a tent near Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said there were seven people killed in the strike.

“Anas al-Sharif served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organization and was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israel Defence Forces] troops,” the Israeli military said in a statement, citing intelligence and documents found in Gaza as evidence.

Palestinian journalists’ groups and Al Jazeera denounced the killings. The other journalists killed were correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, Al Jazeera said.

A sixth journalist, Mohammad Al-Khaldi, a local freelance reporter, was also killed in the airstrike, medics at Al Shifa Hospital said on Monday.

Calling al-Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists,” Al Jazeera said the attack “is a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”

Al-Sharif, whose X social media account showed more than 500,000 followers, posted on the platform minutes before his death that Israel had been intensely bombarding Gaza City for more than two hours.

Al-Sharif was previously part of a Reuters team which in 2024 won a Pulitzer Prize in the category of Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

A press freedom group and a United Nations expert previously warned that al-Sharif’s life was in danger due to his reporting from Gaza. United Nations Special Rapporteur Irene Khan said last month Israel’s claims against him were unsubstantiated.

Last October, Israel’s military had named al-Sharif as one of six Gaza journalists it alleged were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, citing documents it said showed lists of people who completed training courses and salaries.

In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists, which in July urged the international community to protect al-Sharif, said Israel had failed to provide any evidence to back up its allegations against him.

“Israel’s pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” said Sara Qudah, the organization’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, said the killing may signal the start of an Israeli offensive. “The assassination of journalists and the intimidation of those who remain paves the way for a major crime that the occupation is planning to commit in Gaza City,” it said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would launch a new offensive to take control of Gaza, where a hunger crisis is escalating after almost two years of war.

“Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices in Gaza conveying the tragic reality to the world,” Al Jazeera said.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said 237 journalists have been killed since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 186 journalists have been killed in the Gaza conflict.