Israel’s army attacks al-Jazera reporter due to suspicion of terrorism

The Israeli army announced the killing of journalist Anas al-Sharif. The armed forces (IDF) shared this on theirs. The al-Jazera reporter was apparently killed with a targeted attack. The army justified the blow with alleged connections al-Sharif with the terrorist organization Hamas.

“Anas al-Sharif was the leader of a Hamas cell and planned rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers,” said the IDF. He had pretended to be a journalist, but has been a member of Hamas since 2013. In the past, the Israeli army published secret service information and numerous documents from the Gaza Strip that are supposed to take its belonging to Hamas.

“Information and documents from Gaza, including name lists, lists of terrorist instructors and salary statements, show that he was a Hamas activist who was integrated at Al Jazera”, the IDF on X. wrote the killing in a first reaction as “barbaric crime that exceeds all limits of fascism and crime”, as the Israeli timer reports.

The broadcaster Al Jazeera based in Qatar reported that at least four journalists were killed. “The journalist Anas al-Sharif was killed in a presumably targeted Israeli attack together with three colleagues,” Al Jazera reported late Sunday (local time), citing the head of the Al-Schifa Hospital in the city of Gaza.

Al Jazera, on the other hand, described 28-year-old Al-Sharif as a “well-known Arabic correspondent”, who reported in detail from the north of the Gaza Strip for the station. The attack hit a tent for journalists in front of the main gate of the Al-Schifa Hospital. In addition to Al-Sharif, Al-Jazera-correspondent Mohammed Kreikeh and the cameramen Ibrahim Saher and Mohammed Nufal were also killed.

The Arab broadcaster said that the Israeli military had not submitted any documents verified by independent international bodies that would make the claim that Al-Sharif was a Hamas terrorist.

The relationship between Israel and the Qatarian broadcaster Al Jazeera has been tense for years. There is currently a ban on Al Jazera in Israel. This was made possible by a law adopted in April, which provides for the prohibition of foreign media, which is considered harmful to the security of Israel. Israel’s Minister of Communication Schlomo Karhi described the broadcaster as “a mouthpiece of terrorism in the service of Hamas”. The broadcaster rejects the allegations.

Foreign journalists have largely banned access to the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. Local reporters report on site. There are always reports on journalists who were killed in Israeli attacks.

Since the Hamas attack, in which, according to Israeli information, 1219 people were killed, Israel has massively military in the Gaza Strip. According to the Ministry of Health led by Hamas, more than 61,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian area since the beginning of the Israeli military offensive in October 2023. The numbers cannot be checked independently.

On Saturday, the civil protection controlled by Hamas said in the Gaza Strip that at least 37 people were killed in Israeli attacks on that day. Among the dead are 30 civilians who would have been waiting for relief supplies. Due to the massive restrictions for media in the Palestinian area, the information cannot be checked independently.