The death of Al Jazeera journalist, Anas Al-Sharif, occurred on Sunday with four colleagues during an Israeli air attack in front of the Al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza, caused international repercussions and renewed criticism of Israel’s military strategy in the enclave. According to the Catarí chain, the group was in an area identified as a press area when a projectile hit the tent they used to work.
The Israeli army recognized the authorship of the bombing, but assured that Sharif was the leader of a Hamas cell involved in rocket attacks against Israeli territory. Both the journalist and Al Jazeera had previously denied any link with the organization. And the presentation of this type of accusations is not new: on other occasions, Israel has indicated the alleged infiltration of militiamen in civil areas or among press professionals as justification of their operations, without providing conclusive evidence.
Repercussions
Sharif’s companions who were close to the place described Israeli action as immediate and lethal. Wadi Abu al-Saud, a Palestinian journalist, said that the attack occurred seconds after a call ended, and that the explosion reached directly to Al Jazeera tent. Subsequent images showed colleagues moving the bodies. Some of them publicly announced their retreat from coverage, arguing that current conditions make it impossible to inform without exposing themselves to a deadly risk.
The funeral, held in Gaza, brought together relatives, co -workers and neighbors. The journalist Islam al-Zaunun, from Palestine TV, said the episode marks a critical point for the profession in the territory. Another colleague, Bilal Abu Khalifa, recalled that Sharif was aware that he was lists of possible objectives, and that he had expressed his decision to remain in Gaza despite the danger.
Sharif’s last known statement, written months before and disseminated after his death, said he had never hesitated to tell the facts as he saw them, despite the threats and personal losses suffered during the war.
Coverage Since October 2023, Israel has restricted international press entry to Gaza, which has left coverage almost exclusively in the hands of local journalists. Organizations such as the Committee for the Protection of Journalists register at least 186 dead workers since then, while the Gazati authorities raise that figure to 238. Israel denies deliberate attacks against journalists, although the figures and recurrence of cases generate questions.
An academic report of the Costs of War project, by the Watson School of International and Public Affairs, points out that in Gaza more journalists have died than in conflicts such as the two world wars, Vietnam, Yugoslavia or Afghanistan combined.
The official reactions included a declaration from the UN Human Rights Office, which described the attack on the press tent as a possible violation of international humanitarian law. And in the United Kingdom, a spokesman for Labor leader Keir Starmer recalled that international regulations protect the work of journalists in conflict areas, and asked Israel to guarantee safe conditions for coverage.
Complaints
Al Jazeera accused Israel of trying to silence the press before an eventual total occupation of Gaza, while reporters without borders requested the intervention of the international community to investigate the case.
It is not the first time that Israel appeals to the accusation of Hamas infiltration to justify attacks that generate international controversy. In May 2021, a bombing destroyed the Al-Jalaa building in Ciudad de Gaza, which housed the offices of Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The army said the property was used by Hamas Military Intelligence, but did not present verifiable public evidence. In August 2022, during an offensive against Islamic Yihad, local journalists denounced that several press teams were attacked in areas without visible military activity. In those cases, he also alluded to the presence of hidden combatants.
Even outside the media field, the pattern is repeated. Various international NGOs have documented incidents in which Israel’s defense force justified attacks against humanitarian convoys or UN facilities alleging the presence of militiamen or weapons deposits, without subsequently disseminating conclusive evidence.
Without evidence
This argument, used repeatedly, functions as a political and communicational resource: displaces the focus of military action towards the alleged responsibility of the victims for their relationship with Hamas, making international consensus difficult to demand formal explanations.
The death of Sharif and his colleagues again plays the focus on the dispute over the control of armed conflicts. The Israeli accusation that journalists were part of Hamas, presented without verifiable evidence, adds to a pattern of similar accusations used to justify attacks that have caused victims in the local press.
In a scenario where the access of the independent periodise is limited, the work of the Palestinian reporters has become the main source of images and testimonies, and each loss reduces the ability to document the facts in the field.
As long as an external verification is not allowed, the narrative will continue to depend on the official versions and the few witnesses who remain, with the risk that the void of information will become permanent silences.
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