As world press freedom hits an all-time low, Israel just killed five Al Jazeera journalists.
A strike on a media tent near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday killed an entire crew working for the outlet.
Journalists Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and assistant Mohammed Noufal were killed.
Highlights
- Israel killed five Al Jazeera journalists in a strike near Al-Shifa Hospital, with a sixth freelancer also reported dead.
- Israel claims journalist Anas Al-Sharif was a Hamas militant, a charge rejected by Al Jazeera and rights groups for lack of proof.
- Since Oct 7, 2023, at least 186 journalists have died in the Israel-Gaza war, mostly Palestinian reporters covering the conflict.
- Global press freedom is at an all-time low, with 2024 being the deadliest year for journalists, driven largely by violence in Gaza.
Prominent journalist Anas Al-Sharif was killed in an Israeli strike
Image credits: Al Jazeera
Reuters reports that a sixth journalist, freelancer Mohammad al-Khaldi, was also killed in the strike.
In a statement after the attack, Israel claimed that Al-Sharif, a prominent journalist who has extensively covered the war in Gaza, was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell.
It further claimed that he was responsible for “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops.”
Estimated figures say that over 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza
This claim has been sharply criticized by Al Jazeera and rights groups who say Israel has a history of accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof.
“Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” Sara Qudah, Regional Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said.
Image credits: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted. Those responsible for these killings must be held accountable.”
“Israel wiped out an entire news crew. It has made no claims that any of the other journalists were terrorists. That’s murder. Plain and simple,” Qudah added.
She said it was “no coincidence” that smears against Al-Sharif “surfaced every time he reported on a major development in the war.”
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the killing and said it had warned of an imminent attack on Al-Sharif due to claims made by Israel’s army that he was a member of Hamas.
Image credits: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“We condemn with force and anger the alleged assassination of Al-Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif by the Israeli army in a targeted strike against a tent sheltered near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which killed five other media professionals and injured three others,” it said in a statement.
“The international community has remained deaf to warnings, including from the RSF, of the imminent attack on Anas al-Sharif following allegations by the Israeli army. Israel’s media blackout strategy, aimed at masking the crimes committed by its army for more than 21 months in the besieged and starved Palestinian enclave, must urgently end.”
Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7, 2023, 186 journalists have been killed, according to the CPJ. At least 178 of those journalists are Palestinians.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office estimates those figures to be even higher at 238.
Foreign journalists are not allowed into Gaza, meaning on-the-ground reporting has largely fallen to Palestinian reporters who have documented life in the besieged enclave.
Israel has banned international media from entering Gaza
Image credits: Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images
Al Jazeera said the killing of its journalists was an attempt by Israel to silence reporting as it moves forward with plans to take over Gaza.
“This attack comes amid the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has seen the relentless slaughter of civilians, forced starvation, and the obliteration of entire communities,” it said in a statement.
“The order to assassinate Anas Al-Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza.”
Image credits: Salah Malkawi/Getty Images
“Despite losing several journalists to deliberate attacks and working under constant threat, Anas Al Sharif, Mohammed Qraiqea, and their colleagues persisted in the strip to ensure the world sees the harrowing truth experienced by Gaza’s populace,” it added.
Israel has denied deliberately targeting journalists.
Al-Sharif wrote a message to be published after his death
In the final months of his life, Al-Sharif, 28, and his colleagues documented the famine and starvation gripping Gaza.
His reporting, widely described as bold and courageous, provided unfiltered accounts of civilian suffering.
Defying repeated evacuation orders from northern Gaza, he chose to stay, becoming one of the few journalists delivering eyewitness reports under relentless bombardment.
Al-Sharif knew that doing so put him at risk of being killed, and he told the CPJ in July that he was being targeted by a smear campaign because of his coverage.
He prepared a message to be released in the event of his death and noted that “If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles.”
His final words were published on social media on Sunday, and Al-Sharif used them to address his mother, wife, and two children, whom he leaves behind.
“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice,” the message read.
There are concerns over Israel’s plans to escalate the war
Image credits: Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images
“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,” he added.
“Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance,” Al-Sharif concluded.
Israel announced plans for a full takeover of Gaza
Last week, Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to take full control of Gaza City. The decision sparked widespread condemnation globally and protests within Israel itself.
Countries including the UK and Australia urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reconsider escalating the conflict, but their appeals went unanswered.
The move is expected to impact about 800,000 people, many of whom have already been displaced by ongoing fighting. Israel currently controls around three-quarters of Gaza.
Image credits: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
According to the BBC, Netanyahu initially sought a full takeover of Gaza, but disagreements with the Israeli military’s chief of staff resulted in a more limited plan focused on Gaza City.
The UN has warned that it risks igniting “another horrific chapter” of displacement, death, and destruction.
“If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction – compounding the unbearable suffering of the population,” Miroslav Jenča, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, said.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Britain, Australia, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Austria, Norway, and New Zealand expressed concern that the plan could violate international humanitarian law.
Image credits: Amir Levy/Getty Images
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum also condemned the plan and warned that expanding the fighting endangers the lives of hostages still held by Hamas.
Australia has since confirmed it will join the UK, Canada, France, and Portugal in pledging to recognize Palestine as a state during the UN General Assembly in September.
That recognition is contingent upon commitments made by the Palestinian Authority.
However, Netanyahu’s Gaza City plan says it will refuse their right to rule.
The five principles laid out by Israel’s Security Council plan are:
- The disarming of Hamas.
- The return of all the hostages—the living and the deceased.
- The demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
- Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip.
- The establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
Since October 7, 2023, more than 61,430 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The UN estimates that approximately 1,200 Israelis were killed in attacks by Hamas militants on October 7, with about 251 also taken hostage.
An attack on press freedom worldwide
For the first time in the history of the RSF World Press Freedom Index, the global state of press freedom is now classified as a “difficult situation.”
Data from the CPJ also shows that 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists since it started collecting data almost three decades ago, with at least 124 killed.
Most of those journalists and media workers were Palestinians killed by Israel.
Press freedom is at an all-time low
Image credits: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images
Gaza recorded the highest toll, with 82 journalists killed, followed by Sudan and Pakistan with six each.
Mexico reported five deaths, while Syria saw four, and Myanmar and Iraq each recorded three. In Lebanon and Haiti, two journalists were killed in each country.
While the CPJ hasn’t released its 2025 report yet, data on its website shows that so far this year, 51 journalists have been killed, either with a confirmed or unconfirmed motive.
The RSF says that while physical attacks against journalists are the most visible restrictions of press freedom, economic pressure is also a major and “insidious” problem.
“At a time when press freedom is experiencing a worrying decline in many parts of the world, a major — yet often underestimated — factor is seriously weakening the media: economic pressure,” RSF said in its May report.
“Much of this is due to ownership concentration, pressure from advertisers and financial backers, and public aid that is restricted, absent or allocated in an opaque manner. The data measured by the RSF Index’s economic indicator clearly shows that today’s news media are caught between preserving their editorial independence and ensuring their economic survival.”
The U.S. has moved two points down the ranking to number 57.
Image credits: Win McNamee/Getty Images
RSF says Donald Trump’s return to office is “greatly exacerbating” the U.S. experiencing its first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history.
In May, Trump signed an executive order ending federal funding to NPR and PBS via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), citing concerns about bias.
The CPB has since announced it will shut down by the end of the year.
The White House also banned Associated Press reporters from the press pool over a dispute about referring to the “Gulf of Mexico” when Trump had renamed it the “Gulf of America.”
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RSF condemned the ban as a blatant First Amendment violation.
Late last year, Trump sued ABC after George Stephanopoulos incorrectly said he had been found “liable for rape” when a jury found him liable for “sexual abuse.”
The network agreed to settle the defamation lawsuit and pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library.
Similarly, Trump sued Paramount over claims it unfairly edited a 60 Minutes interview in favor of former Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Paramount settled that lawsuit for $16 million recently and said that money would also go towards his presidential library.
Media watchdogs say these measures, combined with a climate of public hostility toward journalists, are driving the steepest and most sustained decline in U.S. press freedom in modern times.