Journalist in danger: protect Anas Al Sharif

“I have no words,” al-Jazeera reporter Anas Al Sharif said in a video posted to his Instagram account as he arrived at the schoolyard in the al-Darraj neighborhood of Gaza City. Behind him, the massacre that took place just hours earlier, as Palestinians gathered in a school to pray, can be seen. Many reports have since documented the massacre, one of the deadliest in Gaza since last October. We published eyewitness accounts on August 12 describing the level of violence as unbearable. Visibly shaken by the scene, Al Sharif added: “I can’t describe what’s happening.”

While the video moved a large audience, which expressed its support for the journalist and its outrage over the attack, it also prompted a reaction from the Israeli army. In a series of tweets, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee accused Anas Al Sharif of presenting a lie, before adding that the journalist must “know the names of a large number of Hamas terrorists among those killed in the school,” implying, without providing any evidence, that there was a link between the media outlet and Hamas.

These statements raise concerns for the safety of the journalist. As the detailed in an article on August 13, 2024, journalists present in Gaza are deliberately targeted by the Israeli army, while they are carrying out their duties and are clearly identifiable as such. While international media are prevented from entering Gaza to document the conflict, journalists who were present there in October are in danger, both as civilians and as professionals.

In a statement released later on August 10, 2024, Al Jazeera Media Network called the Israeli military spokesperson’s statements an act of intimidation: “These remarks are not only an attack on Anas’ character and integrity, but also a clear attempt to suppress the truth and silence those who are courageously reporting on the situation in Gaza.”

Since July 31 and the assassination of his colleagues Ismail Al Ghoul and Rami Al Rifi, Anas Al Sharif has been the last correspondent for AL-Jazeera in northern Gaza. The journalist had previously received threats for his reporting work, and his father was killed on December 11, 2023, after an Israeli airstrike hit his family home in Jabalia. The , along with many press protection organizations, is concerned for his survival and relays Al-Jazeera’s call for the international community to “stand in solidarity with Anas Al Sharif and all journalists who risk their lives to bring the reality of Gaza to the world.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented the killing of at least seven journalists and media workers affiliated with Al Jazeera – which Israel has banned from operating inside the country – since the start of the Israel-Gaza war last October. CPJ is “deeply concerned” for the safety of the Al Jazeera correspondent. Since October 7, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has reported a total of 160 journalists have been killed by the Israeli military.

“This is one of the most blatant attacks on press freedom that I have ever seen,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), of Israel’s 11-month-old genocidal offensive.

The Israeli military has rejected “false accusations that it is targeting journalists.” Yet there is growing evidence to support these accusations. Following the publication of a detailed and damning investigation into the matter, Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s news director whose Gaza bureau was badly damaged by a suspected Israeli tank strike on November 2, 2023, said: “The thing that worries me the most is that it’s not an outrage. Around the world, I don’t see voices from different governments complaining about it. It’s something that is extremely worrying.”

“If there were 100 or 140 Israeli or Ukrainian journalists killed, I don’t think the world’s reaction would be the same,” said Shuruq Assad, spokesman for the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. “I don’t wish any journalist to die, whether Israeli, Ukrainian or Palestinian. Journalists should be protected no matter what country they are in.”

A support campaign has been launched on social media to protect Anas Al Sharif, under the hashtag #Protect_Anas.