Israeli airstrike kills five Al Jazeera journalists

Five Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appeared to be a targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing newsmen in Gaza City.

Seven people were killed overall in the attack on the tent located outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital late on Sunday evening, according to the media agency.

Al Jazeera correspondent, Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, were among the victims of the strike.

Shortly before being killed, al-Sharif, a well-known 28-year-old Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who had reported extensively from northern Gaza, wrote on X that Israel had launched intense, concentrated bombardment – also known as “fire belts” – on the eastern and southern parts of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had targeted Sharif, alleging he had “served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas”.

It also said he had “advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops” and claimed to have Hamas documents that showed he had been in one of the group’s units in 2019.

However, the CPJ said Israel had failed to provide evidence to back up its allegations.

“This is a pattern we’ve seen from Israel – not just in the current war, but in the decades preceding – in which typically a journalist will be killed by Israeli forces and then Israel will say after the fact that they are a terrorist, but provides very little evidence to back up those claims,” CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg told the BBC.

Al Jazeera’s managing editor Mohamed Moawad told the BBC that Sharif was an accredited journalist who was “the only voice” for the world to know what was happening in the Gaza Strip.

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