Israel has confirmed it killed one of Gaza's most prominent journalists, Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed was a member of Hamas.The Israeli military has sought to back up its allegations using documents and images, while Al Jazeera and a number of international organizations have rejected the notion that Sharif was affiliated with the Palestinian militant group with which Israel has been at war for nearly two years.Sharif had also denied he was a member of Hamas, including in comments issued in the final days leading up to his killing alongside five other journalists in a targeted Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on Sunday.Newsweek has outlined what is known thus far about Sharif, his background and the context surrounding his death in what observers have repeatedly described as the world's deadliest war zone for journalists.Who Was Anas Al-Sharif?Anas Al-Sharif was born December 3, 1996, in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp. According to media profiles, he graduated from Al-Aqsa University's Faculty of Media in Gaza, where he specialized in television and radio, and went on to work at Al-Shamal Media Network before joining Qatar-based international news outlet Al Jazeera.After Gaza's deadliest war to date erupted in October 2023 with a Hamas-led surprise attack against Israel, Sharif became a regular and high-profile voice in Arabic-language media detailing events on the ground, made all the more influential because of how few journalists have been allowed in to report from the ground in Gaza. In December 2023, just weeks into the new conflict, his 90-year-old father was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike at their family home in December 2023.Sharif was part of a Reuters team whose coverage of Gaza won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography in May 2024. He had reportedly prepared a "will and final message" to be published in the event that he was killed by Israeli strikes, a message later shared via his social media accounts beginning with the phrase, "If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice."Sharif was killed Sunday alongside four other Al Jazeera staff in Israeli airstrikes targeting Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Strip's biggest urban enclave. In the minutes leading up to his death, he shared videos of what he called a "relentless bombardment" as "the Israeli aggression has intensified on Gaza City."A sixth journalist, identified as freelance reporter Mohammed al-Khaldi, was later reported dead in the same Israeli attacks, bringing the death toll of journalists to six.What Is Israel Saying?As news began to emerge of Sharif's death, the IDF issued a statement announcing that "in Gaza City, the IDF struck the terrorist Anas Al-Sharif, who posed as a journalist for the Al Jazeera network.""Anas Al-Sharif served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organization and was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops," the IDF said.The IDF included accompanying documents allegedly obtained in Gaza and purporting to support Sharif's affiliation with Hamas, including his rank, salary, military ID number and a 2017 injury report. Officially, the IDF has alleged he was a part of the "Hamas East Jabaliya Battalion."Images have also surfaced on social media appearing to show Sharif alongside late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who served as the group's top leader in Gaza and later as head of the entire political bureau before his death in an Israeli raid last October.IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Colonel Avichay Adraee shared one such picture Monday on X, along with a caption stating that, "as we said from the beginning and some refused to believe: Only a terrorist sits in the gatherings of terrorists.""#Anas_AlSharif was not a journalists but a Hamas terrorist," Adraee wrote.Images that purport to be screenshots from Sharif's Telegram channel have also been circulating across social media but Newsweek has not been able to verify the contents of the messages or whether they were sent by Sharif.Adraee had previously issued claims about Sharif, prompting the journalist to warn against the Israeli spokesperson's "campaign of threats and incitement against me because of my work as a journalist with Al Jazeera.""I reaffirm: I, Anas Al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations," Sharif wrote in a July 23 post on social media. "My only mission is to report the truth from the ground—as it is, without bias."Later on Monday, the IDF shared additional documentation claiming to demonstrate Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad affiliations of five other Al Jazeera journalists, along with Sharif, including Talal Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Aruki, Alaa Abdul Aziz Muhammad Salama, Hossam Basel Abdul Karim Shabat, Ismail Farid Muhammad Abu Omar and Ashraf Sami Ashour Saraj.Such claims have been made by Israel about all six men since at least last October, when the documents re-shared by the IDF on Monday were originally published.Newsweek could not independently verify the documents and photographs provided by the IDF nor their contents.Newsweek has reached out to Al Jazeera, Hamas and the IDF for comment.What Is Al Jazeera Saying?Al Jazeera has long rejected Israeli claims of its staff being members of Hamas or other militant groups in Gaza.The outlet issued a statement Saturday saying that its media network "condemns in the strongest terms the targeted assassination of its correspondents Anas Al Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqea, along with photographers Ibrahim Al Thaher, and Mohamed Nofal, by the Israeli occupation forces in yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.""In a statement by the Israeli occupation force, admitting to their crimes, the journalists were targeted by a directed assault towards the tent where they were stationed opposite Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza. In which they were martyred," Al Jazeera said."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," the company added. "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."Al Jazeera staff members held an event in Doha, where it is based, to mourn the deaths of Sharif and four other colleagues.What Are Others Saying?Sharif's death has been met with widespread condemnation by global media outlets and international organizations.The United Nations Office of the High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) condemned what it called the "the killing by Israeli military of 6 Palestinian journalists by targeting their tent, in grave breach of international humanitarian law."#Israel must respect and protect all civilians, including journalists," OHCHR said on its official Facebook page. "At least 242 Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. We call for immediate, safe and unhindered access to Gaza for all journalists."The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) had previously called for Sharif's protection prior to his death due to Adraee's statements, with CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah warning in the wake of the IDF spokesperson's comments last month that "this is the not the first time Al-Sharif has been targeted by the Israeli military, but the danger to his life is now acute."Following news of Sharif's death, Qudah argued that "Israel is murdering the messengers" and had "made no claims that any of the other journalists were terrorists.""It is no coincidence that the smears against al-Sharif — who has reported night and day for Al Jazeera since the start of the war — surfaced every time he reported on a major development in the war, most recently the starvation brought about by Israel's refusal to allow sufficient aid into the territory," Qudah said Sunday.Hamas, for its part, has also repeatedly condemned Israel's killing of Sharif, who the group described as "an exemplary free journalist who documented the starvation crimes and revealed to the world scenes of the famine being imposed by the occupation on our people in Gaza," in a statement Sunday."The ongoing targeting of journalists in Gaza is a criminal terrorist message to the entire world and an indicator of the complete collapse of the system of international values and laws amid global silence that has emboldened the occupation to kill journalists without deterrence or accountability," Hamas said."The fascist occupation army's spokespersons had repeatedly issued threats against Palestinian journalists, including martyrs al-Sharif and Qreiqeh, aiming to deter them from their professional duty of conveying the truth and images of the brutal genocide in Gaza," the group added."These threats were ultimately translated into a horrific killing operation that confirms the fascist behavior of this terrorist entity."What Happens Next?While the circumstances regarding Sharif's alleged Hamas affiliation continue to be subject to debate, his death adds to criticism by international organizations and a growing number of nations regarding Israel's conduct in Gaza.As Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks hosted in Doha and mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States remained deadlocked, a wave of Western nations, including France, Canada, the United Kingdom and, most recently Australia, have expressed their intention to recognize the State of Palestine, a U.N. observer state led by Hamas' West Bank-based rival, the Palestinian National Authority.Both Israel and its allies in the Trump administration have opposed such measures absent a comprehensive peace process in the decades-long conflict.The White House has yet to publicly endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's newly announced plan to assume control over Gaza, but the Israeli premier thanked the U.S. leader for his "steadfast support of Israel since the start of the war" on Sunday.