UN and media groups condemned Israel after an airstrike killed six journalists, including five from Al Jazeera, in Gaza. Israel accused one victim of being a Hamas militant, but watchdogs rejected the claim without credible evidence.
GAZA CITY: The United Nations and global media rights groups have condemned Israel after an airstrike killed six journalists, including five from Al Jazeera, in Gaza City on Sunday.
The victims included 28-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and colleagues Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa. Freelance reporter Mohammed Al-Khaldi was also killed. They died when a strike hit a tent set up for journalists outside Al-Shifa Hospital.
Mourners, some wearing press vests, carried the bodies wrapped in white shrouds through Gaza’s bombed streets to burial sites. Al Jazeera called the attack “a desperate attempt to silence voices exposing the Israeli occupation,” saying it followed “repeated incitement” from Israeli officials.
Israel accused Sharif of being a Hamas militant since 2013, claiming he headed a “terrorist cell” advancing rocket attacks. The military released alleged documents to support its case. Colleagues acknowledged he once worked in Hamas’s communications office but insisted he later became one of Gaza’s most prominent journalists, covering the now 22-month-long war.
Media watchdogs, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, rejected Israel’s claims without credible evidence, warning of a pattern of labelling journalists as militants. The UN human rights office called the strike a “grave breach of international humanitarian law.”
A message Sharif wrote in April, published posthumously, urged the world “not to forget Gaza.” Nearly 200 journalists have been killed since the war began following Hamas’s October 2023 attack, which killed 1,219 in Israel. Israel’s offensive has since killed at least 61,499 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The attack comes amid criticism of Israel’s planned military push into remaining parts of Gaza, including “safe zones” packed with displaced civilians — a move UN officials warn could trigger “another calamity.”
Al Jazeera posted a message on their social post condemning this action. Earlier they had posted a message for global action to protect journalists in Gaza.
-Agencies
