Funerals were held in Gaza on Monday for six journalists - five of them working for Al Jazeera - killed in an Israeli strike that has intensified outrage over the targeting of media workers in the conflict.
Crowds gathered at Al-Shifa Hospital to pay tribute to 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif and four of his Al Jazeera colleagues - fellow reporter Mohammed Qreiqeh and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. Freelance journalist Mohammed Al-Khaldi was also killed. Mourners, some wearing blue press vests, carried their bodies through Gaza City’s rubble-strewn streets to the Sheikh Radwan cemetery.
Al Jazeera said the team was working from a tent outside the hospital when it was struck, calling the attack “a desperate attempt to silence voices exposing the Israeli occupation.” The network accused Israeli officials of inciting against Sharif and other Gaza-based reporters.
Israel confirmed it targeted Sharif, describing him as a Hamas militant responsible for organising rocket attacks. The military released what it said was intelligence linking him to the group. The Committee to Protect Journalists has previously warned against Israel’s practice of branding journalists as militants without providing substantiating evidence.
Reporters Without Borders says nearly 200 journalists have been killed since the war began in October 2023, when Hamas launched an attack that killed 1,219 people in Israel. Gaza’s health ministry says Israeli operations have since left at least 61,430 Palestinians dead, figures the UN considers credible.
The strike on the journalists coincided with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to push into the last parts of Gaza outside Israeli control, including areas previously designated as safe zones. The plan has drawn condemnation from international allies, with Germany suspending some arms exports to Israel.
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