Gaza, MINA – Palestinian journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqea were killed on Saturday in an Israeli bombardment targeting a journalists’ tent near Al-Shifa Hospital, according to Al Jazeera, citing the hospital’s director. Cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal were also killed in the attack.
The strike, reportedly carried out by an Israeli drone, hit an area adjacent to the hospital that journalists believed was safe. Israeli shelling also struck the hospital’s main gate. The Israeli army later admitted targeting al-Sharif.
Al-Sharif, 28, hailed from Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, an area heavily bombarded by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023. A graduate of the media faculty at Al-Aqsa University, he worked for Al Jazeera specializing in radio and television reporting, and gained a strong social media following for his real-time coverage of the war.
In 2018, he won Palestine’s Best Young Journalist Award for his Gaza reporting. Over the years, he faced repeated threats and intimidation from Israeli forces, including phone calls urging him to halt his coverage. His 90-year-old father was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December 2023, weeks after such threats were made.
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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had warned less than two weeks earlier that al-Sharif’s life was in imminent danger following repeated threats from Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee.
CPJ condemned the threats as “clear incitement” and said Israel had killed at least six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza during the war. Al-Sharif himself described the threats as attempts to “assassinate me morally” before killing him physically, vowing not to stop reporting on “the crimes of the Israeli occupation.” []
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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