By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A prominent Al Jazeera journalist, who had previously been threatened by Israel, was killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday in an attack condemned by journalists and rights groups.
Israel’s military said it targeted and killed Anas Al Sharif, alleging he had headed a Hamas militant cell and was involved in rocket attacks on Israel.
Al Jazeera rejected the assertion and before his death, Al Sharif had also rejected earlier claims by Israel that he was connected to Hamas.
Al Sharif, 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who died in a strike on a tent near Al Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said two other people were also killed in the strike.
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 was a “desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”
The other journalists killed were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, Al Jazeera said.
On Monday, people gathered at Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in the heart of the Gaza Strip to mourn the journalists. Friends, colleagues and relatives embraced and consoled one another, many wiping away tears as they bid farewell.
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.
The Israeli military said in a statement that Al Sharif headed a Hamas cell and “was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (Israeli) troops,” citing intelligence and documents found in Gaza as evidence.
Journalist groups and Al Jazeera denounced the killings.
The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is the deadliest on record for journalists, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ Costs of War project.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said 238 journalists have been killed since the war started on October 7, 2023. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 186 journalists have been killed in the Gaza conflict.
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. U.N. Special Rapporteur Irene Khan said last month that Israel’s claims against him were unsubstantiated.
PRE-RECORDED MESSAGE
Al Jazeera said Al Sharif had left a social media message to be posted in the event of his death that read, “…I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent.”
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.
“Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence,” the network said in a statement at the time.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which in July urged the international community to protect Al Sharif, said in a statement that Israel had failed to provide any evidence to back up its allegations against him.
“Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Al Sharif, whose X 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.
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,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will launch a new offensive to dismantle Hamas strongholds in Gaza, where a hunger crisis is escalating after 22 months 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.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Ahmed Tolba; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Diane Craft, Lincoln Feast, Michael Perry and Sharon Singleton)
