Israel Has Assassinated This Beloved Journalist And The Entire Al Jazeera Crew In A Targeted Strike
Israel had been publicly smearing Sharif, known as “the voice of Gaza,” for over a year, claiming he was a Hamas leader without providing verified evidence.
Israel has assassinated the beloved Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif, who has been relentlessly and fearlessly covering Israel’s crimes in Gaza for more than 22 months.
28-year-old Sharif was killed in a targeted airstrike by Israeli forces along with the entirety of Al Jazeera’s crew in Gaza outside of Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza ahead of Israel’s plan to fully take over Gaza.
Israel had been publicly smearing Sharif, known as “the voice of Gaza,” for over a year, claiming he was a Hamas leader without providing verified evidence.
Despite this, Sharif continued to report on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, refusing to leave the Strip, covering the deaths of his family members and his colleagues.
He was separated most of the time from his wife and two children, four-year-old daughter, Sham and one-year-old son, Salah.
Every day, he was “drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follow[ed]” him everyday for the world to act for Gaza.
In July, after he broke down during a live broadcast about the famine in Gaza, Israel intensified its threats on Sharif on July 20, falsely accusing him of being a Hamas terrorist.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued on July 24 a statement saying it was deeply worried for Sharif’s life, warning it could be a precursor to his assassination.
“This is not the first time Al-Sharif has been targeted by the Israeli military, but the danger to his life is now acute… These latest unfounded accusations represent an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif,” the CPJ said in its statement.
Then on Sunday, Aug. 10, Israeli forces targeted and killed Sharif with journalists Mohammed Qreiqeh Al Jazeera correspondent, Al Jazeera camera operators Ibrahim Zaher Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa and freelance journalist Mohammad Al-Khaldi in an airstrike on the journalists’ tent.
Israeli forces confirmed in a statement that it had deliberately targeted and killed Sharif, claiming he was the head of a “Hamas terrorist cell.”
Muhammad Shehada, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera there was “zero evidence” that Sharif took part in any hostilities.
“His entire daily routine was standing in front of a camera from morning to evening,” Shehada said.
Just hours before he was killed, Sharif’s final post was warning of Israel fully invading Gaza, saying “If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop. End this massacre. Silence is complicity.”
Sharif’s colleagues have shared his will on his social media accounts:
“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.
I lived pain in all its details, tasted grief and loss repeatedly, yet I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without falsification or distortion, hoping God would be a witness against those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, those who besieged our breaths and whose hearts were unmoved by the torn bodies of our children and women, and who did not stop the massacre our people have endured for more than a year and a half.
I entrust you not to be silenced by restrictions, nor to be held back by borders. Be bridges toward liberating the country and its people, so that the sun of dignity and freedom may shine upon our usurped land. I entrust you to take care of my family,” Sharif wrote.
Israel has killed more than 238 journalists in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
Isha Jain
Isha Jain
Cherry Mohamed
