The assassination of Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif in a targeted Israeli airstrike on a journalists’ tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday has provoked a wave of mass anger and condemnation around the globe.

The event is the latest in the series of US-backed Israeli war crimes in Gaza and is part of the campaign to silence those exposing to the world the reality of the genocide against Palestinians over the past 22 months.

As of Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that since October 7, 2023, 61,599 Palestinians have been killed, and 154,088 have been wounded. The recent increase includes those killed in ongoing attacks and a surge in deaths linked to malnutrition and the targeting of civilians seeking food aid. Since May 27, 2025 alone, at least 1,838 Palestinians have been killed while attempting to access aid, with over 13,409 injured in these incidents.

In the aftermath of the attack that killed al-Sharif, thousands of Palestinians filled the streets of Gaza to mourn his death. A funeral, held alongside those of his colleagues who were killed in the same assault, became an outpouring of collective grief and determination by Palestinians to fight the barbarism that has been relentlessly unleashed upon them.

Friends and family gave heart-rending accounts of Anas’s role as an outstanding representative of the Palestinian struggle against Zionism. One friend, holding back tears, told the press:

He gave his life to telling Gaza’s story to the world. By killing Anas, Israel wanted to silence all of us. But we will not be silenced; his truth will live on in us.

These sentiments were expressed in eulogies shared by mourners, who described the attack as a deliberate assault both on the press and on the Palestinian people’s right to be seen and heard.

In the days before his death, Anas al-Sharif had prepared a final, haunting statement to be released if he was killed.

Shared on social media after news of his assassination broke, al-Sharif wrote:

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. I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification. Do not forget Gaza. … And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.

The international response to the murder has been one of condemnation. The United Nations Human Rights Office called the killings “a grave breach of international humanitarian law” and noted that over 240 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

Reporters Without Borders denounced the assassination, asserting, “Israel is murdering the messengers.” The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called the assault nothing less than the “systematic elimination of the press” and stressed in a statement:

Israel has a longstanding, documented pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof.

Al Jazeera condemned the attack as a “targeted assassination.” Press freedom organizations demanded international investigations into the targeted killing and the imposition of sanctions on Israel for these repeated violations.

The facts of the assault are not in dispute. Late Sunday, as dusk fell over Gaza City, Israeli drones struck a clearly marked media tent in the compound of al-Shifa Hospital. Inside were six journalists, five were members of the Al Jazeera staff and one a freelancer.

Eyewitnesses described the sudden explosion, the rush to save lives as the tent burned, and their own narrow escape. “We saw the drone circling. It struck suddenly. We pulled our brothers from the flames, but there was nothing to be done for most. One was still alive but died in our arms,” recounted a surviving colleague.

Medical personnel from the hospital confirmed the deaths of all those inside the Al Jazeera tent, as well as a sixth journalist in a neighboring shelter. The six journalists killed in the airstrike were:

• Anas al-Sharif (28, Gaza, Palestine): Senior correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, celebrated for frontline coverage throughout the war.
• Mohammed Qreiqeh (33, Gaza, Palestine): Reporter for Al Jazeera Arabic, lost his mother to an Israeli assault earlier in the war.
• Ibrahim Zaher (27, Gaza, Palestine): Cameraman and field video specialist for Al Jazeera, known for his courageous footage from conflict zones.
• Moamen Aliwa (29, Gaza, Palestine): Cameraman with Al Jazeera, focused on documenting the humanitarian crisis.
• Mohammed Noufal (24, Gaza, Palestine): Production assistant and fixer for Al Jazeera, played vital roles in logistics and reporting.
• Mohammad al-Khaldi (31, Gaza, Palestine): Freelance reporter, known for contributing to multiple international outlets, including Qatari-based networks.

Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif (أنس جمال محمود الشريف) was born on December 3, 1996, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, into a family of refugees originally displaced from Al-Majdal (now Ashkelon) in 1948. He grew up amid hardship as a child during the Second Intifada, a teenager under the Israeli blockade, and an adult faced with repeated wars.

He developed a passion for journalism and studied mass communication at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, specializing in radio and television. He began his career volunteering at Al-Shamal Media Network before joining Al Jazeera Arabic as a correspondent in northern Gaza. He lived in Jabalia with his wife and two young children, often spending long stretches separated from his family due to the demands and risks of his work.

When the Israeli genocide began on October 7, 2023, al-Sharif quickly rose to national and international prominence. Although unknown before the war, his daily on-the-ground reports, often from the epicenter of conflict and destruction, brought the violence faced by Gaza’s civilians to millions around the world.

He documented Israeli airstrikes, starvation, the escalating humanitarian crisis, and the experiences of Palestinians under siege. Al Jazeera recruited him in December 2023 after his raw, social media coverage of the strikes in his hometown of Jabalia went viral.

In that same month, his father, Jamal al-Sharif, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on their family home, a strike that was said to be preceded by direct threats to Anas to stop reporting. A report by the Guardian in December 2024 said that Israeli forces, in a series of three major military offensives, completely destroyed the camp where 100,000 Palestinians had once lived. 

At 28 years old, al-Sharif became identified by colleagues and observers as “the only voice left in Gaza City,” and he was lauded for his integrity and unwavering commitment to reporting the truth. He became known for his courage in broadcasting from areas under direct bombardment, while many international media organizations were denied access by Israeli authorities.

His reporting earned him and his Reuters team the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, underscoring how his work provided the outside world with vital evidence of the reality in Gaza. He repeatedly faced threats from Israeli authorities, especially IDF accusations without evidence that he was a terrorist.

In the immediate aftermath of his death, Israel’s military issued a statement claiming Anas al-Sharif “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organization and was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and troops.” However, no verifiable evidence was presented, and Israel has not accused any of the other journalists or staff that were killed in the attack.

These accusations have been rejected by Al Jazeera and by other journalists worldwide, who emphasized that Anas al-Sharif had steadfastly denied such links and that similar claims had long been used by Israel to justify violence and murder against media workers.

The massacre of the journalists occurred amidst the worsening catastrophe in Gaza. The daily tally climbs as airstrikes and artillery fire continue in residential neighborhoods, hospitals and aid distribution points. As the famine worsens, hundreds, including children, are perishing from hunger and lack of medical attention.

Israel’s strategy is not just mass killing but forced starvation, as international aid convoys are blocked or bombed, and Gaza’s population is corralled into “humanitarian cities” on the southern border near Egypt. These open-air concentration camps are serving as holding pens for Palestinians in advance of Israel’s plan to expel them entirely from Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Security Cabinet are now speaking openly of permanent annexation of Gaza and vowing to “complete the job” by eliminating any Palestinian presence in the central and northern zones of the Strip. This massive crime is being made possible through the direct and indirect support of the world’s imperialist powers, foremost among them the United States, Britain, France and Germany.

Billions in weaponry, political cover at the United Nations, and diplomatic backing for Israel’s policies of dispossession have come from Washington, London, Paris and Berlin. Recent token statements by these governments for a “ceasefire” or “unhindered humanitarian access” are a thin veil behind which they seek to hide their complicity.

Official condemnations of the “latest excesses,” references to “humanitarian catastrophe” and now “the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists” are accompanied by continued facilitation of Israel’s war machine: arms exports, intelligence sharing and votes in international forums to shield Tel Aviv from censure.

As the funerals are held and the people of Gaza mourn the silencing of al-Sharif, masses of people around the world are seeing that the war crimes of Israel and the imperialist powers are continuing and becoming more barbaric. A mass movement of the working class internationally is required to put an end to the world capitalist system responsible for Israel’s revival of the methods of ethnic cleansing and genocide that were used by the Nazis in World War II.