Five Al Jazeera Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike on Gaza

It happened in Gaza — an Israeli airstrike claimed the lives of five Al Jazeera employees. One of them was journalist Anas al Sharif, a man who had been open about his fear of being targeted for assassination. Sadly, his fear became reality.

Alongside al Sharif were his colleagues Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa all killed in the same attack. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had already sounded the alarm, warning that al Sharif was facing an Israeli military smear campaign.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) later confirmed carrying out the strike. They accused al Sharif of being a “terrorist” and leading a Hamas cell responsible for rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Al Jazeera rejected those claims, calling the strike a “targeted assassination” and a direct attack on press freedom.

Just a month earlier, al Sharif had spoken publicly about the fear he lived with daily. He said his reporting “harms them and damages their image in the world.” Since the conflict began in 2023, at least 186 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, with foreign reporters still barred from independent coverage.

The Hamas-run Gaza government called the killings “brutal and heinous,” accusing Israel of deliberately striking journalists’ tents near al Shifa Hospital. They described it as “a full-fledged war crime” aimed at silencing the truth and destroying evidence of genocide.

After al Sharif’s death, a post appeared on X that was described as his “last will and testament.” In it, he wrote: “If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.” The 28-year-old expressed his pain over not being able to watch his children grow and pleaded for Gaza and his own memory to be kept in people’s prayers.

This was not the first tragedy to hit his family. In December 2023, his father was also killed in an Israeli strike, shortly after al Sharif received threats from Israeli officers warning him to stop his coverage. In May 2024, Israel completely shut down Al Jazeera’s television network in the country.