12-08-2025
JERUSALEM/ GAZ CITY: Israeli forces have killed five Al Jazeera staff, including correspondent Anas al-Sharif, in a targeted strike on their media tent outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Israel’s military has claimed responsibility for the assassination in a statement, falsely claiming al-Sharif led a unit of Hamas’s armed wing.
A journalist Mohammed Qreiqeh, cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and their assistant Muhammed Nofal, were also killed in the attack.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,430 people and wounded 153,213. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
UN spokesperson condemns killing of journalists in Gaza
Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, has shared a statement on the killing of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza City.
“We send our condolences to Al Jazeera family,” Dujarric said.
“We are looking into what happened in Gaza today,” he added.
“We have always been very clear in condemning all killings of journalists. In Gaza, and everywhere, media workers should be able to carry out their work freely and without harassment, intimidation or fear of being targeted.”
“It is essential that journalists be allowed to freely access all areas of Gaza and to independently report on the situation there,” Dujarric said.
Slain Al Jazeera correspondents were ‘the eyes of Gaza’
The Gaza Health Ministry’s director general, Munir al-Bursh, has paid tribute to al-Sharif and Qreiqeh, saying they “were the eyes of Gaza, reporting the truth from the rubble”.
He said they had told him that they were “constantly threatened” by the Israeli military. “Our grief for Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh is grief for the truth and the free voice,” he said.
We’re talking about the killing of an entire crew who have been covering the unfolding horror for the past 22 months and, more recently, the atrocity of the enforced starvation, the dehydration, malnourishment and death of many people, most of them children, inside health facilities in Gaza.
They were also covering the attacks on people waiting for aid in Gaza.
All of these have been documented by Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground, particularly Anas and his colleague Mohammed and their entire team.
This highlights the importance of the work that is done on the ground but the Israeli military was not happy about the coverage, because it uncovered many of its crimes on the ground.
We’re still shocked. We’re still trying to absorb what happened. It’s not just one or two; it’s an entire crew that’s been murdered by the drone strike.
Israel has not only confirmed the attack and the killing of Al Jazeera crew members in Gaza City, but it is threatening publicly that this is scoring a victory, by targeting and killing journalists on the ground.
This indicates the coming days [here in Gaza City] are going to be very difficult.
Let’s be honest about what happened. The killing of journalists on the ground is impacting how the coverage is going on, on the ground.
It will definitely serve what the Israeli military is after.
Al Jazeera Media Network condemns in the strongest terms the targeted assassination of its correspondents Anas Al Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqea, along with photographers Ibrahim Al Thaher, and Mohamed Nofal, by the Israeli occupation forces in yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom. (Int’l News Desk)