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.”