Keystone-SDA
The funerals of the five employees of the Qatari chain Al Jazeera, killed in the night by an Israeli attack in Gaza and including a well -known reporter of his viewers, took place Monday in the Palestinian territory devastated by 22 months of war.
(Keystone-ATS) As the Israeli government is determined to implement its new operating plan in the besieged Palestinian territory, Al Jazeera reported the death of five of its employees in “an Israeli targeted attack” on a tent in Gaza-Ville, in front of the Al-Chifa hospital.
The five men are Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, as well as cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. A freelance journalist, Mohammed al-Khaldi, who occasionally collaborated with local media, was also killed in the Israeli attack, according to the director of the hospital.
Anas Al-Sharif, 28, was one of the best known faces among the correspondents covering the conflict daily.
The Israeli army said it targeted it, calling it “terrorist” who “pretended to be a journalist”.
The Defense Organization of the Reporters Sans Frontières press (RSF) denounced “with force and anger the claimed assassination” by the Israeli army of Anas Al-Sharif, adding that it was “the voice of the suffering imposed by Israel on the Palestinians of Gaza”.
Dozens of men, some in tears and spelled at times, brought the bodies of the victims on Monday morning to the Cheikh cemetery Redouane, in the city of Gaza, according to an AFP videographer.
On the attack site, a white wall riddled with bursts, mattresses soiled on the ground or even fans twisted by the flames testified to the strike on the plastic tent, of which nothing or almost nothing left with the exception of its metal structure.
“This is my will”
Al Jazeera condemned “a desperate attempt to silence the voices which denounce the” Israeli occupation. According to the channel, 10 of its correspondents were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of its offensive triggered in retaliation for the attack on Hamas on October 7, 2023.
According to RSF, nearly 200 journalists have been killed since the start of the war.
In his latest messages on social networks on Sunday evening, a few moments before his death, Anas Al-Sharif reported “intense” bombings and broadcast a short video showing bombardments, lights in the starry night on the city of Gaza.
A posthumous text, written in April in the event of death, was published on his account on Monday morning, where he calls to “do not forget Gaza”. “This is my will and my last message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has managed to kill me and silence my voice, “said this long message in the preamble.
The Israeli army says that Anas Al-Sharif “was the leader of a terrorist cell in the terrorist organization Hamas and was responsible for preparing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and Israeli troops.
She published a journalist’s selfie on her social networks, posing with Hamas chefs. As well as a painting supposedly showing names of members of the Palestinian Islamist movement, where the name of the journalist is in a corresponding salary for the years 2013 and 2017.
In July, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) accused the Israeli army of carrying out “a defamation campaign” towards the journalist by presenting him in online messages as a member of Hamas.
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The broadcast of Al Jazeera was prohibited in Israel and its local offices closed in May 2024.
The international press is not allowed to work freely in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war. Only a few media, handpicked, have rarely entered on board (in “embed”) with the Israeli army, their reports being subject to strict military censorship.
The international press works based on local journalists and correspondents, who paid a heavy price for the conflict.
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that it has given the army to authorize more international media to work under its control in Gaza.
Mr. Netanyahu, who justified the new Israeli plan providing for the conquest of the city of Gaza, is faced with very strong pressure, in Israel on the fate of the 49 hostages retained by Hamas, and abroad to silence arms while more than two million Palestinians are threatened with a “widespread famine” according to the UN.