ALWAGHT- Global outrage is growing after Israel’s targeted strike on Gaza City killed five Al Jazeera journalists.
Israel has claimed responsibility for a Sunday strike in Gaza City that killed five Al Jazeera staff—correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and assistant Mohammed Noufal. Iran’s Foreign Ministry, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the attack, calling it a war crime and a deliberate targeting of civilians. Rights advocates said al-Sharif was singled out for his frontline reporting on the Gaza war.
Al Jazeera denounced the killings as a “desperate attempt” to silence coverage of Israel’s plans to seize and occupy Gaza. The network said the journalists were killed when Israeli forces struck a tent for reporters outside a hospital’s main gate. Before his death, al-Sharif had reported on Israel’s “fire belt” bombardments and, in a final message prepared for his possible martyrdom, vowed never to distort the truth despite enduring grief, loss, and witnessing atrocities against civilians.
The CPJ had previously warned of threats to al-Sharif’s safety after Israel’s military spokesperson accused him of being a Hamas fighter. This latest attack marks yet another targeting of journalists in Israel’s 22-month war on Gaza, which has become the deadliest conflict for media workers in history, with over 230 journalists killed. With Gaza sealed off, Palestinian reporters remain the world’s primary source for coverage of the ongoing genocide.
