On the evening of 10 August, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Anas al-Sharif, 28, one of the network’s most recognised journalists from Gaza, posted a video on X in which he reported that Israel had launched intense bombardments in Gaza City.
“The bombing continues...For two hours now, Israeli aggression has been intensifying on the city of Gaza,” he wrote.
This would be his final report from the ground. Later that night, an Israeli strike hit a tent housing journalists near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, killing al-Sharif, a Pulitzer Prize winner, fellow Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal.
Freelancers Momen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khalidi were also killed.
Israel’s army later confirmed al-Sharif’s assassination, claiming he led a Hamas cell responsible for rocket attacks against civilians and troops, but providing no credible evidence. Al Jazeera and media rights groups rejected the claim.
Before his killing, al-Sharif had been targeted in a smear campaign in which Israel accused him of having links to Hamas. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) voiced concern over the campaign against him.
Al-Sharif’s killing is part of a pattern of Israel targeting journalists in the Gaza war, making it the deadliest conflict on record for reporters.
Since October 2023, the CPJ has documented 184 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed, while the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) counted 212.
“I don't know any conflict on earth where such a large number of journalists have been targeted and killed,” Raji Sourani, a human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), told The New Arab.
“Now, the question is: why? [Because] they are the eyes and ears of international media, broadcasting war crimes, persecution, and genocide live, aware of their responsibility to bring the facts to the world. In this genocidal war, pictures make a difference.”
The killing of the six journalists on 10 August has sparked global outcry, with the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), and several countries, as well as human rights groups, condemning the attack.
The incident has also added pressure on Israel as it continues a campaign of deliberate starvation while planning to take over and occupy parts of the Gaza Strip.
While al-Sharif’s killing occurred amid an escalation of attacks on journalists in Gaza, media watchdogs have documented, depending on methodology, the killing of between 19 and 36 journalists and media workers in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the 1990s, reflecting a longstanding pattern of targeting reporters.
Among the most prominent victims was Al Jazeera veteran correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, an American-Palestinian journalist killed by an Israeli sniper on 11 May 2022. But Israel also kills foreign journalists, like Raffaele Ciriello, an Italian freelance photographer shot in Ramallah on 13 March 2002 while on assignment.
This pattern of killings reflects a broader trend in Israel's treatment of the press, which has hardened over the decades, shifting from censorship to direct attacks.
What began with colonial-era press laws and military censors after 1967 turned into raids, detentions, and news media outlet closures.
Akram Atallah, a Palestinian political analyst, told TNA that since the early 1970s, Israel has been targeting authors and journalists in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), like Ghassan Kanafani, assassinated in Beirut by a car bomb planted by Israeli Mossad agents in 1972.
“It focused on this group in an attempt to obscure the Palestinian narrative, prevent its dissemination, and monopolise influence over public opinion,” he said.
By the Second Intifada in the 2000s, reporters faced live fire and battlefield risks, like British filmmaker James Miller, who was killed in Gaza in 2003, with no one held accountable.
In the 2010s, this pattern persisted, with Israeli forces killing Palestinian journalists Yaser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein while covering the 'Great March of Return' protests in 2018. Both were wearing a clearly labelled 'PRESS' vest at the time.
In the 2020s, Israel’s targeting became more systematic, combining lethal strikes and smear campaigns.
“By assassinating journalists, Israel hopes to erase the Palestinian narrative as victims, which has begun to gain international traction, and to conceal images, news, and reports, especially those of influential journalists working with widely viewed satellite channels such as Al Jazeera,” Atallah said.
Last year, Israel banned Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, accusing the broadcaster of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against its soldiers.
But Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists extends beyond Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. During the 2023–2024 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, six to nine journalists, including Reuters’ Issam Abdallah, were killed by Israeli fire.
Palestinian-American political analyst Khalil Jahshan, and the executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC, told TNA that journalists have become an obstacle for Israel, both politically and militarily.
“Israel is desperate and no longer cares about its reputation or Hasbara PR,” he said. “After the failure of its Gaza war, Netanyahu pursues a shameless policy, ignoring world opinion and relying solely on support from Trump and Washington.”
Hasbara, Israel’s official propaganda efforts to justify or defend its policies towards Palestinians, has also played a role.
Following al-Sharif’s killing, +972 Magazine reported that Israel had established a covert “Legitimization Cell” after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. The unit would aim to bolster Israel’s image by linking Gaza’s journalists to Hamas, thus justifying their targeting and mitigating international criticism.
Israel has launched multiple smear campaigns with false accusations against journalists it has killed. In July 2024, for example, an Israeli airstrike targeted Al Jazeera journalists Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi while reporting in Gaza.
The next day, Israel claimed, with no evidence, that al-Ghoul was part of Hamas’ military wing.
International Crisis Group’s Senior Palestine Analyst Tahani Mustafa told TNA that Israeli Hasbara has become much sloppier in recent years, largely because of the deep-seated, subconscious bias and racism in Western reporting that accepts Israel’s actions as unquestionably correct.
“Israel can repeatedly make false claims without accountability. Reports of targeting Hamas tunnels or individuals are often false yet accepted by Western media, reflecting both the effectiveness of Israeli messaging and the underlying biases in Western reporting,” she said.
But smear campaigns against journalists are not limited to Gaza. The detention of journalists in the West Bank has also reached unprecedented levels, with 49 journalists detained, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, often accused of belonging to Hamas or other Palestinian groups.
Sara Qudah, MENA Director for CPJ, told TNA that while journalists in Gaza face harassment, threats, starvation, loss of homes, and inhumane living conditions with limited aid and connectivity, those in the West Bank and Israel also experience harassment and intimidation.
“Anyone who speaks out or exposes what Israel is doing in Gaza is threatened, accused of being affiliated with Hamas, or labelled a terrorist,” she said. “Many journalists have been detained and arrested, especially in Israel, including Palestinian journalists living there, as well as Israeli reporters.”
Pamela Morinière, head of campaigns and communications at IFJ, told TNA that any state that wants to control the narrative will try to intimidate or silence the press, but while in some countries, that means harassment, “in Israel, it has gone as far as killing journalists”.
“It’s a way to control the narrative. In war, the fewer people who are properly informed, the better. Killing journalists stops reporting and chills others, while barring foreign journalists lets Israel push its own narrative, ignoring deaths and starvation,” she said. “That’s why we need journalists on the ground to show the world the war’s real impact.”
Israel has barred foreign reporters from Gaza since October 2023, except under military escort. However, it cannot stop Palestinian journalists from reporting without resorting to killing them.
Mustafa said journalists in Gaza are problematic for Israel as they sustain public support for the Palestinian cause and challenge the narrative Israel and its supporters push, and that, without them, people wouldn’t have access to alternative information.
“Clearly, Israel will never have to account for this - history shows perpetrators often don’t, especially in Western states,” she said.
“But in terms of its public image, this has dealt a massive blow to Israel. That’s something Israel will likely never recover from - and not just Israel, but Israelis more broadly.”
Dario Sabaghi is a freelance journalist interested in human rights.
Follow him on Twitter: @DarioSabaghi