Online Reporter
Herald Reporter
Israel has assassinated a prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif, along with four colleagues, in an airstrike on Sunday.
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.
The other journalists killed were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal.
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.
Al Jazeera described Al Sharif as one “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”, adding that the attack was a “desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza”.
Previously, Israel had threatened Al Sharif with death, falsely claiming he had headed a Hamas cell.
Both Al Sharif and Al Jazeera have vigorously rejected the claims.
The brutal, cold-blooded killing of the journalists and the assistant, has since been condemned by journalists and rights groups and the State of Palestine’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Tamer Almassri.
In a statement today, Dr Almassri, condemned in the strongest terms the assassination of the journalists.
He described these deliberate killings as part of a broader strategy to silence truth-tellers, erase evidence of atrocities, and prepare for ethnic cleansing in Gaza through mass displacement and confinement of its population.
“Targeting journalists is a war crime under international law,” said Dr Almassri.
“It recalls the darkest pages of the 20th century, when totalitarian regimes, including Nazi Germany, sought to destroy the witnesses to their crimes before committing large-scale atrocities.
“Israel is following that same path—driven by racial hatred, armed with unrestrained military power, and acting with utter disregard for the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute.”
Dr Almassri warned that Israel’s actions have stripped it of any remaining moral or legal legitimacy and that its war crimes will not go unanswered.
“The world will not forgive, history will not forget, and justice will not be denied. Israel will pay the price for its crimes, just as other regimes that thought themselves above the law ultimately did,” said Dr Almassri.
He called on the international community to take urgent action to stop Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, hold its leaders accountable before the International Criminal Court, and protect the Palestinian people from further atrocities.
The Gaza government media office has said 238 journalists have been killed since Israel started its war against Palestine in October 2023.
Over 60 000 people have been killed in Gaza since 2023 and thousands of others injured and over 11 000 remain buried under the rubble and presumed dead.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which in July urged the international community to protect Al Sharif, said: “Israel’s pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom.” – Additional reporting: Al Jazeera
