Israel Killed Al Jazeera Journalist Anas Al-Sharif
Journalists in Gaza continue to be murdered in record numbers, while Western media outlets and reporters show little or no outrage.
On Sunday, the Israeli military killed our press colleagues, Al Jazeera journalists Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa.
The journalists were killed by an Israeli airstrike late Sunday local time. One minute, they were reporting on Israel’s escalating bombardment of Gaza City. And the next minute, they became victims of it.
Israeli forces bombed a tent housing the reporters near al-Shifa Hospital. The attack also reportedly killed Al-Sharif's nephew Musab Al-Sharif, who is said to have looked up to his 28-year-old uncle and wanted to follow in his footsteps as a journalist.
Barely an hour before US-backed Israeli forces killed Al-Sharif, he had warned on Twitter, “If this madness doesn’t end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.”
Just weeks ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for Al-Sharif’s protection in the face of an Israeli military smear campaign. The vile campaign included the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee alleging that Al-Sharif was a “terrorist,” since he cried on air while reporting on the starvation of his people in Gaza.
After the attack, the Israeli military said it targeted and killed “the terrorist Anas Al-Sharif, who posed as a journalist for the Al Jazeera network,” claiming without any substantiated evidence that he “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation.”
“When you read the statement issued by the army, which was well prepared before all this happened, it’s almost as if it is bragging about it,” Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid wrote.
‘Silencing My Voice’
Warnings like the one Al-Sharif wrote just before being killed have become horrifyingly familiar. Such appeals have fallen on deaf or disinterested ears in the halls of power worldwide, namely in the West, and particularly in the US. And for months, such pleas have been met with skepticism by the Western press, and particularly by the US press.
Where are the big names that proclaim themselves as brave, bold, as telling things as they are? The network figureheads, the Washington mainstays? Israeli forces have killed some 245 journalists in the past 22 months. Journalists who were also people, just like anyone else, and who had to become bigger than life, in order to justify themselves to viewers thousands of miles away. People who had been forced every single day to report on the devastation of their own land, their own families. People who would cover an airstrike that killed their children and, by sheer necessity, continue to report on the next strike, in the pursuit of convincing the world to act, of the hope of tomorrow being different.
How many murdered Palestinian journalists will it take for the mainstream press’s cowardly fever to break?
After his killing, Al-Sharif’s team published his final words on social media:
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. First, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that Allah would extend my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original town of occupied Asqalan (Al-Majdal). But Allah’s will came first, and His decree is final. 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—so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.
I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.
I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland. I entrust you to take care of my family. I entrust you with my beloved daughter Sham, the light of my eyes, whom I never got the chance to watch grow up as I had dreamed.
I entrust you with my dear son Salah, whom I had wished to support and accompany through life until he grew strong enough to carry my burden and continue the mission.
I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose blessed prayers brought me to where I am, whose supplications were my fortress and whose light guided my path. I pray that Allah grants her strength and rewards her on my behalf with the best of rewards.
I also entrust you with my lifelong companion, my beloved wife, Umm Salah (Bayan), from whom the war separated me for many long days and months. Yet she remained faithful to our bond, steadfast as the trunk of an olive tree that does not bend—patient, trusting in Allah, and carrying the responsibility in my absence with all her strength and faith.
I urge you to stand by them, to be their support after Allah Almighty. If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles. I testify before Allah that I am content with His decree, certain of meeting Him, and assured that what is with Allah is better and everlasting.
O Allah, accept me among the martyrs, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family. Forgive me if I have fallen short, and pray for me with mercy, for I kept my promise and never changed or betrayed it.
Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.
Anas Jamal Al-Sharif
06.04.2025
This is what our beloved Anas requested to be published upon his martyrdom.
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Not a constructive comment, but I fucking hate Israel
I couldn’t but shed a tear when I heard the news. I never expected much from humanity and international law, but the level of silence on the live steaming horror show Israel orchestrating is beyond comprehension.