CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it killed an Al Jazeera journalist it accused of being a Hamas cell leader in a Gaza airstrike, but rights advocates said he had been targeted for his frontline reporting on the Gaza war and Israel’s claim lacked evidence.Anas Al Sharif, 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who died in a strike on a tent near Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said two other people were also killed in the strike.
Calling Al Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists,” Al Jazeera said the attack was a “desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”Al Sharif was the head of a Hamas cell and “was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF [Israeli] troops,” the Israeli military said in a statement, citing intelligence and documents found in Gaza as evidence.
Journalists’ groups and Al Jazeera denounced the killings.The other journalists killed were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, Al Jazeera said.
A press freedom group and a UN expert previously warned that Al Sharif’s life was in danger due to his reporting from Gaza. UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan said last month that Israel’s claims against him were unsubstantiated.Al Jazeera said Al Sharif had left a social media message to be posted in the event of his death that read, “[…] I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent”.Last October, Israel’s military had named Al Sharif as one of six Gaza journalists it alleged were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, citing documents it said showed lists of people who completed training courses and salaries.