By Farah Hassen
Israel killed every member of Al Jazeera’s media team in Gaza City in a single night.
In an airstrike on a media tent outside Al-Shifa hospital on August 10, the Israeli military acknowledged killing the journalists. Camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, as well as Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, were killed in the strike.
Reporter Mohammad al-Khaldi and freelance cameraman Moamen Aliwa were also slain.
Anas al-Sharif was a well-known journalist, spouse, and father of two young children at the age of just 28. While covering every facet of the rising atrocities in Gaza, including the mass murder and disfigurement of Palestinians, the extensive damage of life-sustaining infrastructure, such as medical institutions, and forced famine, he and his colleagues endured continuous Israeli bombing.
Like other Palestinian journalists, Israeli forces threatened al-Sharif s life repeatedly,falsely accusinghim ofheading a Hamas militant cell.But he continued his unafraid reportage.
He also had severe loss. His 90-year-old father was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit his family’s home in the Jabalia refugee camp in December 2023. Israeli military authorities had called on al-Sharif to cease reporting from northern Gaza weeks earlier. However, he declined.
The intentional murders of al-Sharif and his associates have been denounced by the UN and human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time Israel has killed Palestinian journalists after falsely accusing them of being terrorists or militants. Israel, among others, killed Hossam Shabat, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher, on March 24 by striking his vehicle. In a drone strike on their vehicle on July 31, 2024, Israeli soldiers also killed Ismail al-Ghoul of Al Jazeera and their cameraman Rami al-Rifi.
International journalists have been refused entry to Gaza by the Israeli administration. Its killings of Palestinian journalists were part of a larger trend to silence critics of its horrific abuses of human rights.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has assassinated nearly 270 media professionals, the great majority of them are Palestinian. They are not collateral damage they re being hunted.
Over the past two years, more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Ukraine combined, according to the Watson Institute at Brown University.
It is a clear war crime to intentionally target and murder journalists. They need to be safeguarded, just like any other civilian. Journalists play an integral role in covering potential violations of international humanitarian law like we ve seen in Gaza.
The existence of Palestinian life in Gaza is being destroyed by Israel’s catastrophic bombardments, restrictions on humanitarian aid, and the illegal use of famine as warfare. Although the actual number is thought to be in the hundreds of thousands, at least 61,000 Palestinians have been proven dead.
The United States is still actively involved in the genocide by supporting Israel militarily, economically, and diplomatically. This has to stop. Israel’s unlawful siege of Gaza, which has lasted for almost 18 years, must end right away. All humanitarian aid must be allowed in, overseen by the UN and its partners, not theU.S.-Israeli death trapswhere soldiers shoot starving people at so-called aid distribution sites.
The world continues to hear from Gaza’s courageous journalists in spite of Israel’s attempts to muzzle witnesses. Even in the United States, where the majority of Americans, regardless of party, oppose Israel’s actions, people continue to demand that their governments cease permitting the mass killing and starvation of Palestinians. Additionally, communities are organizing to demand accountability and justice for all of the journalists who were killed.
“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,” warned Anas al-Sharif just before he was killed.
Killing the messenger will not absolve Israel of its misdeeds. Both justice and the truth must win out.
Farrah Hassen, J.D., is an adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona, as well as a writer and policy analyst. Farrah was born in the United Arab Emirates and grew up in the United States. She graduated with a Summa Cum Laude in 2007 with a Master’s in International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service.
