Despite the shockwaves that spread across the world as a result, there was no surprise in Israel’s target-to-kill operation on Monday that eliminated Aljazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif along with four other staff and two other journalists in a direct military strike on a tent where the reporters had assembled.
Israel has been working systematically to prevent all forms of reporting of its genocidal war on Gaza. Since the start of its war on Gaza, in which tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed or gravely wounded, Israel has killed over 130 journalists.
It has also been killing the families of Palestinian journalists. In January 2024, Aljazeera viewers were shocked by the news of the killing of Hamza, the son of its Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh, who had continued live reporting for the channel until he was hit and wounded in an Israeli strike.
Israel has been denying Arab and international journalists access to enter Gaza and has been sending direct and indirect warnings to major news channels and agencies against sending their correspondents to Gaza or recruiting Gazans to report for them.
According to a journalist who covers the Middle East for a prominent European daily newspaper, “the Israelis basically told our embassy [in Israel] that any Palestinian whose name appear on the pages of the paper would be considered a direct target for [the Israeli strikes in Gaza].”
Another journalist who worked in the earlier phase of the war for a prominent radio and TV news channel in several languages said that by the beginning of last year, “it had become clear that Israel did not want any reporting on what is happening in Gaza.”
A decision was taken not to reveal the names and identities of freelance journalists in order to protect them. The protection measures, she added, included finding ways to pay the journalists without having them exposed to the tight screening system that Israel has been using to expand its list of targeted journalists.
Both journalists said that it was clear that Israel wanted to execute its genocide away from the eyes of the world.
They agreed, too, that the reporting of correspondents from Israel showed that one of the problems that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been facing during his push to keep the war going is related to the image of the country in the rest of the world, with much of the criticism of the war being focused on the idea that it hurts the “sympathy” some other countries feel towards Israel.
According to the journalist who works for a reputable European daily, it is now not unusual for a journalist like herself who has reported from Israel during the war to hear a politician, a commentator, or just an ordinary citizen saying that “Israel has lost the social media war.”
The criticism related to the impact of the management of the war, she added, and is also coming from within military circles in Israel, with top brass generals complaining that the coverage of the war is coming at a cost to the image of the Israeli Army.
“Some generals have been discussing the possible legal consequences of their role in the war, which could be easily tracked due to the press coverage,” said a senior analyst who works for a prominent Western research centre.
“It is an open secret that there is currently a dispute among the top ranks in the Israeli Army on who should do what for fear of legal consequences, including accusations of committing war crimes and/or crimes against humanity,” he said.
“Despite all the atrocities we have been seeing during the past 22 months of the war, I think that the next phase is probably going to be the ugliest,” he added. He said that with Israel openly saying that it is planning a military occupation of around two thirds of Gaza, there is bound to be much bloodshed and more forced evictions.
“With the unstoppable wave of international sympathy for Gaza and the political consequences thereof, including the decision of several European governments to recognise a Palestinian state, it was predictable that Israel would start targeting journalists ahead of its upcoming disaster in Gaza,” he said.
An Aljazeera source said that the channel has been aware of the threats facing its teams on the ground since the May 2022 killing of Shireen Abu Akleh while wearing a blue press vest and covering a raid on the Jenin Refugee Camp in the Israeli Occupied West Bank.
A widely followed correspondent, Abu Akleh was a US national.
The source said that with fewer and fewer satellite channels adopting the editorial policy of dedicating considerable airtime to live coverage of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, Israel is out to silence as many voices as it can.
He said that the Doha headquarters of Aljazeera has been sharing information with journalists on the ground on the possible threats against their lives and those of their families. All journalists, including Al-Sharif, had shrugged off the warnings and insisted that they would keep on reporting, he said.
“They perceived themselves as the voice of their people who are being crushed every single day by the Israeli war while the world is watching,” he said. He added that the live coverage of Aljazeera has been “the nightmare” of the Israeli government and the Israeli military.
Al-Sharif in particular was well aware that he was on the Israeli target-to-kill list, but he still was determined to keep on reporting, he said.
In remarks following the killing of Al-Sharif and his colleagues, Aljazeera said the attack was “a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”
“It is the easiest thing in the world for Israel to claim that Al-Sharif and the other journalists were Hamas operatives, but everyone knows that Israel is lying out right,” the source said. “Abu Akleh was in the West Bank, she was a Christian Palestinian, and still Israel killed her,” he added.
Sara Quda, Middle East and North Africa Director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said that Israel had not provided any evidence for its claims associating Al-Sharif with Hamas. “Israel’s pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” she stated.
Similar to the killing of Abu Akleh, the killing of Al-Sharif has prompted international outrage, with several organisations including Reporters Without Borders calling on the international community to intervene.
Al-Sharif and his colleagues were buried on Sunday in a massive funeral loaded with pain and anger. The bodies of the journalists were wrapped in traditional white sheets at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza before the start of a funeral procession that ended at the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in Gaza.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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