Gaza City — An Israeli airstrike on a media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital has killed five Al Jazeera staff members and two others, in what press freedom advocates are calling one of the most brazen assaults on journalists in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The attack on August 10 targeted a clearly marked press area, striking without warning. Among the dead were correspondent Anas al-Sharif, reporters Mohammed Qreiqeh and Moamen Aliwa, cameraman Ibrahim Zaher, and assistant Mohammed Noufal. Witnesses described scenes of carnage, with bodies pulled from the rubble as colleagues, medics, and civilians scrambled in panic.
For months, al-Sharif had been one of Gaza’s most prominent correspondents, reporting from frontline neighborhoods obliterated by relentless Israeli bombardment. He had continued his work despite threats, repeated displacements, and the deaths of family members. His last dispatches documented the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the worsening humanitarian crisis, defying Israel’s systematic targeting of the press.
The Israel Defense Forces admitted responsibility for the strike but attempted to smear al-Sharif as a Hamas commander, a claim rejected by Al Jazeera and widely condemned as a crude posthumous justification for killing a journalist. International observers say this is part of Israel’s longstanding strategy to criminalize journalism in Gaza, equating coverage of atrocities with “terrorism” in an effort to control the narrative of the war in Ukraine-scale information suppression.
Funeral processions for the slain journalists filled the streets of Gaza City, with mourners chanting against Israel and denouncing what they called “media genocide.” The Committee to Protect Journalists described the killings as a direct attack on press freedom, while UN officials warned the strike could amount to a war crime. According to Gaza’s media authority, more than 250 journalists have been killed since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, making this war the deadliest in modern history for the press.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry called the attack “state terrorism” and vowed to pursue legal action against Israeli leaders, including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for crimes against journalists. Analysts note that the targeting of reporters fits into Israel’s broader campaign of silencing witnesses to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, much as previous wars saw the suppression of evidence and testimony that could challenge Western political narratives.
According to Reuters, Al Jazeera confirmed that five of its journalists, correspondent Anas Al Sharif, reporters Mohammed Qreiqeh and Moamen Aliwa, cameraman Ibrahim Zaher, and assistant Mohammed Noufal, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a media tent near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on August 10. The network described the attack as a deliberate attempt to silence independent coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, calling the slain journalists “among the last remaining voices documenting the truth from Gaza to the world.”
According to Mehr News, the official casualty list confirmed the deaths of the five Al Jazeera staff members and two civilians, while reiterating the network’s position that the strike was a deliberate attempt to intimidate and eradicate independent coverage from Gaza.
