Israel’s military said it targeted and killed Al Sharif, claiming he headed a Hamas cell and helped advance rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and troops, citing intelligence and documents found in Gaza. Al Jazeera rejected the allegation; Al Sharif had previously denied any Hamas ties.
Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant died in the strike on a tent near the hospital. A hospital official said two other people were also killed.
Al Jazeera called Al Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists” and said the attack was a “desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”
A press freedom group and a U.N. expert had warned Al Sharif’s life was at risk over his reporting; last month, U.N. Special Rapporteur Irene Khan said Israel’s claims were unsubstantiated. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Israel had failed to provide evidence and that labeling journalists as militants without credible proof raises serious questions about intent and respect for press freedom.
“This is a pattern we’ve seen from Israel — not just in the current war, but in the decades preceding — in which typically a journalist will be killed by Israeli forces and then Israel will say after the fact that they are a terrorist, but provides very little evidence to back up those claims,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg told the BBC.
Israel last October named Al Sharif among six Gaza journalists it alleged were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, citing documents describing training and salaries.
“Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence,” the network said then.
Al Sharif was part of a Reuters team that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. His X account, with more than 500,000 followers, posted minutes before his death that Gaza City had been under intense bombardment for over two hours. He also left a message to be posted if he was killed, saying he never hesitated to convey the truth.
Hamas said the killing could signal the start of an Israeli offensive, calling it an attempt to intimidate remaining journalists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would soon launch a new offensive to dismantle Hamas strongholds amid a worsening hunger crisis after 22 months of war.
The other journalists killed were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, Al Jazeera said. The Gaza government media office said 237 journalists have been killed since October 7, 2023. CPJ put the toll at at least 186 in the Gaza conflict.
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Source: Reuters, The Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera