On the night of 10 to 11 August, six Palestinian journalists were killed by an Israeli strike. This attack targeted the tent they were occupying near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. In the morning, the bodies of Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, reporters for Al Jazeera, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, cameramen for the pan-Arab channel, Moamen Aliwa, assistant, and Mohammed Al-Khaldi, photojournalist, who died from his injuries in hospital, were surrounded by a crowd of Gazans paying their respects.
Israel targeted Anas Al-Sharif
The Israeli army claimed responsibility for this deadly attack. They justified it by saying that it targeted Anas Al-Sharif, one of the last correspondents present in the Gaza Strip. They accused him of being « the head of a Hamas terrorist cell » posing as a journalist, as stated on Telegram. This allegation was denied by Al Jazeera and deemed unfounded by journalists’ organisations such as Reporters Without Borders (RWB) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), as well as by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Irene Khan, and the European Union (EU).
« We are all terrorists in the eyes of the Israelis, especially the occupying army. And anyone who is targeted for killing is labelled a terrorist. To justify the massacres and killings, we are terrorists. It’s always the spectre of Hamas, and that’s nothing new. They say he was responsible for launching rockets, when Anas al-Sharif was in front of the Al Jazeera camera 24 hours a day, doing live reports and news stories. How did he have time to launch rockets or anything else? Why didn’t they target him when he was firing rockets? Unfortunately, it’s always the same excuse. The easiest word to justify massacres is « terrorist, » and that’s the shield the Israelis use when it comes to Palestinians. And to justify any criticism from abroad, it’s anti-Semitism. So that’s how they protect themselves and justify their massacres« , said Rami Abou Jamous, a Palestinian journalist based in Gaza, on French radio station RFI.
Although the Israeli army claimed to have seized documents in Gaza, little has been made public. Only photos showing Anas Al-Sharif alongside Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas’s armed wing who was killed on 16 October 2024, have been published on the social media accounts of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). However, these photos do not constitute proof of involvement in terrorist activities.
« I have photos of many French journalists taking selfies with the same people who were with Anas al-Sharif. Are they terrorists or are they members of Hamas? And similarly, there are journalists taking selfies with Netanyahu. Netanyahu is a war criminal. He has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC). It’s really a reversal of roles. But we haven’t seen [Anas al-Sharif] with a Kalashnikov or a machine gun, or with a rocket on his back, » added Rami Abou Jamous.
This strike comes just days after Benjamin Netanyahu announced on the US channel Fox News a plan to take control of the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, according to journalist Islam Bader, Anas Al-Sharif was planning to cover a massacre of civilians near the Zikim crossing point.
A strike that sparks a wave of protests and condemnations
The deaths of Anas Al-Sharif and his colleagues sparked protests by journalists around the world, including in Sweden, Mexico, England, Morocco, and even Tel Aviv, Israel.
In addition, the United Nations (UN) and the EU condemned what they describe as « murder« . Indeed, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) considered it a « serious violation of international humanitarian law ». Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), also called for a « thorough and transparent investigation ». Finally, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, denounced the fact that « the Israeli army continues to silence voices reporting the atrocities committed in Gaza ».
« Journalists must be protected and international media must go to Gaza to support the heroic work of their Palestinian colleagues. This is the only way to counter misinformation and dispel doubts about the scale of the atrocities committed in Gaza, » he added, as Israeli authorities prevent foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip, as denounced by more than 200 press freedom organisations and international newsrooms.
The director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Jodie Ginsberg, also stressed that « journalists are civilians » and that targeting them in wartime « is a war crime. »
« International law is clear: only active combatants are legitimate targets in a war context, » she also pointed out.
Attacking the truth
However, Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Al-Khaldi are far from being isolated cases. According to the UN, 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023.
Like many other organisations, RWB accuses the Israeli authorities of targeting journalists in order to « silence the facts, suppress the truth, and isolate the Palestinian press and population ». It has also repeatedly referred the matter to the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists in Gaza.
« This occupying army wants to commit its crimes without witnesses. And here’s the proof: it doesn’t want foreign journalists to enter Gaza. And as for the journalists who are in Gaza, they must be buried because with their burial comes the burial of truth, reality, images, voices and words. This is nothing new; it started in the West Bank with Shireen Abu Akleh. She did not belong to Hamas. She was not a terrorist. But it was simply because she was well known at Al Jazeera and was the voice of the Palestinian people in the West Bank. So they killed her. […] We know very well that each of us will be killed one day or another, and we don’t know how: bombed, burned or buried alive. But we must continue to work so that the world knows what we are going through, whether in Palestine or especially in Gaza, » Rami Abou Jamous told his colleagues at RFI.
