Israeli Military Assassinates Prominent Al Jazeera Journalist Prior To Invading Gaza City

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Israeli military forces assassinated Anas al-Sharif, a high-profile Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza City who officials falsely and maliciously labeled a “Hamas cell” leader. 

The attack came days after Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to seize and occupy Gaza City, a further act of ethnic cleansing that would displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living with famine. 

Along with al-Sharif, Israel’s bombing killed six other people, including Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.

Al Jazeera responded:

...In a statement by the Israeli occupation force, admitting to their crimes, the journalists were targeted by a directed assault towards the tent where they were stationed opposite Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza. In which they were martyred. This attack comes amid the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has seen the relentless slaughter of civilians, forced starvation, and the obliteration of entire communities. The order to assassinate Anas Al Sharif, one of Gaza's bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza...

“This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice,” al-Sharif proclaimed in a statement shared hours after his death.

“I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification—so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.”

“I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world,” al-Sharif continued. “I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.”

Al-Sharif further declared, “I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland.”

Israel has killed, and in numerous instances, specifically targeted or encouraged the summary execution of over 250 journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the targeted airstrike on the media tent, which was near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. 

As CPJ noted, on July 24, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted a video that accused al-Sharif of being “a member of Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam, since 2013 and working during the war for the most criminal and offensive channel.’”

“Adraee’s campaign is not only a media threat or an image destruction; it is a real-life threat,” al-Sharif told CPJ in July. “All of this is happening because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip harms them and damages their image in the world. They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally.”

In October 2024, the Israeli military maliciously accused al-Sharif of ties to Hamas in a fabricated dossier. He was singled out along with Al Jazeera journalists Hossam Shabat, Ismail Abu Omar, and Talal al-Arouqi.

The Israeli military massacred Shabat in March. Abu Omar barely survived an Israeli attack in February 2024 that left his head deformed. Al-Arouqi was injured in a strike on Nuseirat refugee camp in November 2024. 

Two more Al Jazeera journalists, Ashraf Saraj and Alaa Salameh, were baselessly accused of ties to the Islamic Jihad militant group in that dossier. 

Al-Sharif also received widespread media attention as much of the Western news media finally spoke up about their journalistic colleagues, who are dying of starvation.

“I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment,” Al-Sharif shared in July. “Gaza is dying, and we die with it. And if the world does not move today, tomorrow there may be no one waiting to be saved.”

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Marina Watanabe recalled, "Shortly after the Gaza genocide began, I signed an open letter demanding that Israel stop killing journalists. [The LA Times] punished me and 100 of my colleagues and banned us from covering Palestine for 3 months."

"I will never forgive U.S. media for its complicity in their deaths," Watanabe declared.

The Israeli government prohibits international journalists from entering and leaving Gaza. Al-Sharif felt a responsibility to cover the truth of the bloodshed and destruction wrought by Israeli military forces.

“We had two options: either stop the coverage to protect ourselves and our families from being targeted or continue the coverage. We chose to continue,” Al-Sharif said in October 2024.

Contextualizing the assassination of al-Sharif, Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi stated, “Israeli forces deliberately murdered journalist Anas al-Shareef because they knew he would remain in Gaza City as the now advance their ‘final solution’ against Palestinians.”

“They always knew where he was—he never hid. Every day, he was live on camera, documenting the genocide.”

“This is the essence of Zionism: before you mass slaughter children and women, you first silence the ones who would bear witness. Anas and Mohammed Qaraqeh will not be the last,” Tirawi concluded. 

Israel’s push to invade and occupy Gaza City echoes the military operation carried out in Rafah in May 2024, and now, Israel is planning to construct a “humanitarian city” on top of the rubble to hold the entire population of Gaza.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert told The Guardian. “If they (Palestinians) will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city,’ then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing.”