Late on Sunday, an Israeli strike shook al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis, focusing on a journalists’ tent by the gate.
As individuals rushed to assist, it grew to become obvious that 5 Al Jazeera employees had been killed, together with Anas al-Sharif, one of the crucial well-known faces of Arabic reporting from Gaza.
Why did Israel need to kill journalists? What occurred that night time? Right here’s what we all know:
Who had been the 5 Al Jazeera employees Israel killed?
Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, 28, was one in every of Gaza’s most recognisable faces for his fixed reporting of the truth on the bottom during the last 22 months. The daddy of two was born in Jabalia refugee camp and graduated from Al-Aqsa College’s College of Media. His father was killed by Israel in an air strike on the household house in December 2023.
Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, 33, made his final dwell report on air solely shortly earlier than his assassination, talking in his trademark eloquent method. Qreiqeh was born in Gaza Metropolis in 1992 and lived within the Shujayea neighbourhood. He earned a BA in journalism and media on the Islamic College of Gaza. Israel killed his brother, Karim, in March in an air assault on Gaza Metropolis.
Al Jazeera cameraman Ibrahim Zaher, 25, was from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammed Noufal, 29, was additionally from Jabalia. He misplaced his mom and one brother in earlier Israeli assaults. His different brother, Ibrahim, additionally works as a cameraman for Al Jazeera.
What had been they doing after they had been killed?
They had been working.
The staff was in a tent by the principle gate of Gaza Metropolis’s al-Shifa Hospital late on Sunday night.
The tent was the place they labored, as journalists in Gaza have gathered at hospitals to hunt higher electrical energy and web connections, a indisputable fact that has been well-known for the reason that begin of Israel’s warfare on Gaza.
“I’m not removed from al-Shifa Hospital, only one block away, and I might hear the large explosion that came about previously half an hour or so, close to al-Shifa Hospital,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported yesterday.
“I might see it when it lit up the sky and, inside moments, the information circulated that it was the journalist camp on the principal gate of the al-Shifa Hospital.”
What occurred?
Al Jazeera’s reporter Hani al-Shaer mentioned an Israeli drone hit the journalists’ tent at roughly 11:35pm (20:35 GMT) on Sunday night time.
Shortly earlier than being killed, al-Sharif wrote on X that Israel had launched intense, concentrated bombardment – also referred to as “fireplace belts” – on the japanese and southern components of Gaza Metropolis.
Journalist Amer al-Sultan was in a neighbouring tent when the assault came about.
“I got here to the scene and noticed all of the destruction,” al-Sultan mentioned, standing amid the tent’s wreckage, his again to a concrete wall pocked and splattered from the assault. “[I thought] all our colleagues had been martyred.”
Al-Sultan added that he wasn’t positive who the journalists had been who had been within the tent, however “once I began filming, I noticed our colleagues Anas al-Sharif was on the bottom and Mohammed Qreiqeh, who was on fireplace.
“We began to drag him out and attempt to put out the hearth.”
The individuals gathered there tried to get Qreiqeh inside al-Shifa Hospital, however he succumbed to his wounds earlier than they may get him remedy, al-Sultan mentioned.
Mohammed Qeita, a contract journalist, was additionally close by.
“I used to be not only a witness to the occasion, I used to be a part of it…The hearth was very sturdy.
“Even now, I can’t imagine it,” he mentioned.
“We knew Anas was the goal… He was our voice.”
How did Israel clarify intentionally killing journalists?
It mentioned one in every of them wasn’t actually a journalist.
Israel’s military posted about intentionally killing the journalists, claiming it had needed to kill al-Sharif, who it accused of being an armed commander for Hamas solely posing as a journalist.
Within the assertion, it accused al-Sharif of “advancing rocket assaults towards Israeli civilians and troops” and alleged it had paperwork offering “unequivocal proof” of this.
Muhammad Shehada, an analyst on the European Council on Overseas Relations, mentioned there was “zero proof” that al-Sharif took half in any hostilities.
“His whole every day routine was standing in entrance of a digital camera from morning to night,” he advised Al Jazeera.
On quite a few events during the last 22 months, Israel has justified killing reporters by claiming they belonged to armed teams. Teams centered on press freedom and media staff’ rights have mentioned for months that Israel is intentionally focusing on journalists in Gaza.
Two of probably the most outstanding incidents included journalist Hamza Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael Dahdouh, and journalist Hossam Shabat, who had been each assassinated by Israel and accused of being members of Hamas with none proof.
What did Al Jazeera say?
Al Jazeera known as the killing of its employees a “focused assassination … in yet one more blatant and premeditated assault on press freedom”.
It mentioned the journalists “had been among the many final remaining voices from inside Gaza, offering the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground protection of the devastating realities endured by its individuals”.
Israel has banned worldwide media from coming into Gaza since October 2023, however “Al Jazeera journalists remained inside besieged Gaza … [delivering] searing eyewitness accounts of the horrors unleashed over 22 months of relentless bombing and destruction,” the assertion mentioned.
Why did Israel need to assassinate Anas al-Sharif?
Al-Sharif was the face of Al Jazeera Arabic in Gaza and of iconic moments as he reported on Israel’s atrocities within the besieged, bombarded enclave.
For months, Israeli officers had threatened him, demanding that he cease reporting, however he refused, pledging to remain in northern Gaza and proceed his protection.
Quite a few rights teams and press freedom teams known as for al-Sharif’s safety after he was instantly threatened by Israel.
Israel ramped up a smear marketing campaign on al-Sharif in latest months, with military spokesperson Avichay Adraee calling out al-Sharif by title in a video on X final month, accusing him of being a part of Hamas’s navy wing.
Irene Khan, UN particular rapporteur on freedom of expression, mentioned final month that Adraee made “an unsubstantiated declare” and known as the smear a “blatant assault on journalists”.
Israel killing al-Sharif was a focused try and shut down protection of its atrocities, former Government Director of Human Rights Watch Ken Roth mentioned.
“This isn’t an unintentional killing. This isn’t a journalist who occurred to get caught in Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinian civilians on the whole.
“This was a focused killing,” Roth advised Al Jazeera.
Authorities in Gaza say Israel has killed practically 270 journalists and media staff because it launched its warfare on Gaza.