An Israeli strike in Gaza City late Sunday night killed seven people including at least four journalists from the news network Al Jazeera.
The Israeli military said it targeted and killed Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif – a prominent journalist who has extensively covered the war from inside Gaza – after accusing him of leading a Hamas cell, an allegation Al-Sharif had previously denied.
Mohammed Qreiqeh, another Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, and photojournalists Ibrahim Al Thaher and Mohamed Nofal were also killed in the strike, the network said.
“The order to kill Anas Al-Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, along with his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the occupation of Gaza,” Al Jazeera said in a statement after the attack.
In the minutes before he was killed, Al-Sharif said on social media, “If this madness does not 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.”
Al-Sharif was in a tent with other journalists near the entrance to the Al-Shifa Hospital when he was killed, according to hospital director Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya. The tent was marked with a ‘Press’ sign, Abu Salmiya told CNN. The strike killed at least seven people, Salmiya added.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has accused Al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell in Gaza that “advanced rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.” The IDF had previously shown documents it claimed showed “unequivocal proof” of Al-Sharif’s ties to Hamas.
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