How Israel restricts reporting on its war in Gaza

“This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”

So begins the final post of Anas al-Sharif, a Palestinian journalist who worked for Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera and lived in and covered the Gaza Strip. His last message addressed his Muslim faith, Palestine and his family. The post, from April, was to be published in the event of his death. The text went online on August 11.

Al-Sharif, 28, was killed by Israeli shelling along with Correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, Cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, all of whom worked for Al Jazeera. The journalists were staying in a tent assigned to them near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. In a statement put out after the attack, Al Jazeera said its journalists were victims of a “targeted assassination,” constituting an “outrageous and deliberate attack on press freedom.”

In a rare move, Israel publicly admitted to killing al-Sharif. On X, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) described al-Sharif as a “terrorist posing as a journalist for Al Jazeera,” adding that he “was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops.” 

The IDF provided screenshots of what it claimed were internal Hamas documents with entries purportedly proving al-Sharif’s affiliation. Israel had repeatedly accused Al-Sharif of links to Hama in recent months.

On the evening after al-Sharif’s death, the BBC reported that prior to the Gaza war, al-Sharif had been working for a Hamas media team but had more recently expressed criticism of Hamas, the resistance group that led the October 7, 2023, resistance campaign into southern Israel.

UN and journalism organizations dismiss allegations

The United Nations Human Rights Office condemned the killing of the journalist, calling it a “grave breach of international humanitarian law.” The German government similarly said international law must be respected and that an inquiry was needed. 

In July, UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression Irene Khan said, “I am deeply alarmed by repeated threats and accusations of the Israeli army against Anas al-Sharif, the last surviving journalist of Al Jazeera in northern Gaza.”

That same month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international press freedom NGO, warned that al-Sharif was being subjected to a “smear campaign by the Israeli military.” At the time, Al-Sharif was quoted as saying: “I live with the feeling that I could be bombed and become a martyr at any moment.”

CPJ published a statement by its regional director, Sara Qudah, after al-Sharif’s killing, saying that “Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom. Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted.”

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the CPJ has recorded the deaths of 186 journalists in the coastal enclave.

Martin Roux of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) told DW there had been “a smear campaign” to justify the killing of al-Sharif. He said al-Sharif was not only a prominent Al Jazeera journalist, but also the voice of Palestinians suffering in the Gaza Strip.

“So targeting him with this smear campaign to justify his killing is just another aspect of the media blockade that was put in place by Israel.”

No free reporting in Gaza

Israel has largely denied foreign journalists access to the Gaza Strip since fighting began. Its military has laid waste to large swathes of the coastal strip and is poised to take control of Gaza City. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government argues that its aim remains the destruction of Hamas.

Recent propaganda videos showing two emaciated Israeli hostages being held in Gaza caused outrage in Israel. At the same time, Israel has faced growing criticism over its conduct of the Gaza war. The United Nations warns that Gaza’s entire population is at immediate risk of starvation. Numerous human rights organizations, including, most recently, Israeli NGOs, accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, an accusation the International Court of Justice is investigating.

In June, more than 200 media outlets signed an open letter demanding that Israel grant journalists unrestricted access to the Gaza Strip. Footage from inside Gaza and information about the territory are disseminated by international media outlets, who largely rely on local journalists working on the ground as reporters or stringers. Some of them have been working with editorial teams and correspondent bureaus outside Gaza for years, though Israeli authorities repeatedly accuse Palestinian journalists inside the Gaza Strip of lacking objectivity.

Israel denies most international journalists access to the Gaza Strip. Only a select few are permitted into the area for a short period when they are “embedded” within Israeli military structures. Such journalists are under the supervision of soldiers and must have their raw material approved by military censors. Reporters who take advantage of this opportunity to enter Gaza are fully aware they will only be seeing the perspective of the Israeli army.

Israel considers New York Times lawsuit

News organizations, therefore, rely on Palestinian journalists, aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders and local Gaza contacts to report on what is happening on the ground. At times, this has led to the Israeli government targeting international media outlets.

Recently, Netanyahu said he was considering legal action against the New York Times. In July, the newspaper printed a picture of a severely malnourished child in the Gaza Strip on its front page. Its editorial team said it only became aware that the emaciated child was also suffering from a pre-existing medical condition after the picture’s publication.

Netanyahu is keen to make this point, as he denies deliberately starving Gaza’s population, even though several aid organizations blame Israel for the fact that significantly less aid than needed continues to reach Gaza.

Netanyahu also said he had instructed the army to allow more foreign reporters into the Gaza Strip so that they could see “Israel’s humanitarian efforts” as well as “civilian protests against Hamas.” Netanyahu did not specify whether he meant granting journalists free access or “embedding” them with the army.

Al-Sharif and his colleagues were among only a handful of journalists left working in the Gaza Strip.