by JERUSALEM (AP) After press advocates said that an Israeli smear campaign intensified when Anas al-Sharif expressed outrage on air about starvation in the region, Israel’s military launched an airstrike late Sunday in Gaza, targeting and killing an Al Jazeera correspondent and others.
The killings of al-Sharif and associates were verified by Israel and Gaza City hospital officials, which the Committee to Protect Journalists and others saw as retaliation against journalists covering the conflict in Gaza. The Israeli military claimed that al-Sharif had been the leader of a Hamas cell, a claim that both al-Sharif and Al Jazeera had previously denied as untrue.
In the past, the military has claimed to have attacked people it identified as Hamas terrorists impersonating journalists. This conflict has been dubbed the deadliest for journalists in contemporary times by observers.
Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Qreiqeh, along with four other journalists and two other individuals, were among those killed while seeking refuge outside the main hospital complex in Gaza City, according to officials at Shifa Hospital. Al Jazeera employees made up five of the six journalists that were killed. The complex’s emergency building’s entrance was destroyed by the impact.
The airstrike came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have ordered the military to send additional international journalists to Gaza and defended a planned military offensive into some of the most populous sections of Gaza, including Gaza City.
Less than a year has passed since Israeli army officials initially charged al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists with belonging to the extremist organizations Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Israel’s army spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, criticized Al Jazeera in a video released on July 24 and charged al-Sharif with belonging to the Hamas military wing. The accusations were refuted by Al-Sharif and his employer as unfounded.
Amnesty International, the International Press Institute, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Foreign Press Association, and the U.N. human rights office have all expressed their condemnation.
Al Jazeera linked al-Sharif’s killing to the accusations that the network and journalist had refuted, calling the strike a targeted assassination and accusing Israeli officials of inciting the attack.
According to a statement from the Qatari network, Anas and his colleagues were some of the final voices from inside Gaza, giving the world firsthand, uncensored footage of the terrible conditions that its citizens had to face.
International journalists have been prohibited from accessing Gaza for the duration of the conflict, with the exception of infrequent invitations to watch Israeli military operations. Al Jazeera is one of the few media organizations that continues to have a sizable staff of reporters within the besieged strip, documenting day-to-day activities amidst airstrikes, starvation, and the debris of ruined neighborhoods.
Last year, soldiers stormed Al Jazeera’s offices in the occupied West Bank, and the network is prohibited in Israel. At the time, Israel banned its websites, stopped its stories from airing, and ordered the closure of its local offices.
During the war, the network has lost many members, including freelancer Hossam Shabat, who was murdered in an Israeli airstrike in March, and 27-year-old correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who were killed last summer.
Shabat was one of six people Israel accused of belonging to militant groups in October, along with al-Sharif.
Intentional targeting is limited to journalists who are Hamas fighters or who are actively involved in hostilities at the time of the attack. According to Janina Dill, a professor of global security at the University of Oxford, warning the world about the famine of people, reporting on Israel’s military actions in Gaza, and even spreading pro-Hamas propaganda would not be considered direct involvement in hostilities. There is growing evidence, she continued, that Israel views anyone it suspects of being a Hamas member as a valid target.
Dill stated, “I don’t think this is a reasonable interpretation of international humanitarian law.”
At least 192 journalists have been killed since Israel’s war in Gaza started, according to a report released Monday by the Committee to Protect Journalists. According to CPJ data, Sunday’s strike raises the total number of Al Jazeera staff journalists murdered in the conflict to 11, excluding eight freelancers.
On July 31, Irene Khan, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of speech, stated that Israel’s assassinations were part of a calculated plan to stifle the truth, prevent international crimes from being documented, and bury any chance of future responsibility.
Al-Sharif lamented the loss and devastation caused by war and said goodbye to his wife, son, and daughter in a social media post that Al Jazeera said was prepared to be posted in the event of his death.
The 28-year-old wrote, “I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.”
Al-Sharif, Qreiqeh, and their colleagues were mourned Monday by hundreds of people, many of whom were journalists. The victims were at the Shifa Hospital complex, shrouded in white blankets.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s Ahed Ferwana claimed that reporters were being singled out and called on the world community to take action.
Days after the battle started, Al-Sharif started working for Al Jazeera. He gained notoriety for covering Israel’s shelling of northern Gaza and, subsequently, the famine that afflicted a large portion of the population.
Al-Sharif sobbed live during a July show while a woman beside him passed out from starvation.
At the time, he stated, “I am talking about the slow death of those people.”
Two children survive Qreiqeh, a 33-year-old inhabitant of Gaza City.
Earlier in the war, both journalists spent months apart from their families. They shared video footage at the time showing their children not being able to identify them when they were reunited during the ceasefire earlier this year.
The voices and eyes of Gaza have been Anas al-Sharif and his associates. while death threats and overwhelming grief, they fearlessly reported from the frontlines while being starved and fatigued, Amnesty International said in a statement on Monday. The organization also stated that an independent, unbiased investigation into the killings of Palestinian journalists is necessary.
Magdy was in Cairo reporting. Molly Quell, an AP writer from Amsterdam, contributed.
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