SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Less than $3 per week View Profile The Explainer Talking Points The Week Recommends Newsletters From the Magazine The Week Junior Food & Drink Personal Finance All Categories Newsletter sign up In The Spotlight Journalists killed in Gaza: a chilling assault Anas al-Sharif and three of his Al Jazeera colleagues were targeted by the IDF Newsletter sign up Al-Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif speaks in an AFP interview in Gaza City just over a week before his death (Image credit: AFP / AFPTV / Getty Images) The Week UK 16 August 2025 "Assassination," wrote George Bernard Shaw, "is the extreme form of censorship." This truth was brought home to the world this week, said Binoy Kampmark on Middle East Monitor, when a prominent Palestinian journalist, Anas al-Sharif, was killed along with three of his Al Jazeera colleagues by an air strike on a press tent in Gaza City. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman confirmed that Sharif had been deliberately targeted, claiming that intelligence obtained before the strike proved he was "an active Hamas military wing operative". Sceptics dismissed that claim, asking how Sharif could have led a rocket-launching squad while reporting in front of a camera all day. A different IDF spokesman had levelled the same accusation at Sharif last month, prompting calls from the Committee to Protect Journalists for the "international community" to safeguard the life of the 28-year-old father of two. Subscribe to The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Journalists targeted This is just the latest horror to hit journalists in Gaza, said Fiona O'Brien in The London Standard. Israel has banned all foreign reporters from entering the enclave, leaving only local ones like Sharif to tell the world what's going on there. Almost 200 have been killed since the war began in 2023, "at least 46 of whom were directly targeted". Others have died of hunger. "Several correspondents have collapsed live on air." In a statement last month, the outgoing board of the AFP press agency said it was the first time since the agency's founding in 1944 that it had seen colleagues dying "not from bombs or bullets, but from starvation". A shameful assault Sharif was "never likely to be an impartial witness" to the Gaza War, said the Daily Mail. He was born and raised in northern Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp. His father was killed by an Israeli bomb. And like all local journalists, he could "work only with the tacit approval of the Hamas-run authorities". Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. But even if he was a Hamas sympathiser, that in itself wouldn't justify killing him, still less the other members of his film crew, about whom no such claims have been made. If Israel has direct evidence that Sharif was engaged in terrorism, they should produce it. In the absence of such material, this killing looks like a shameful assault on press freedom. Explore More Middle East The Week UK Social Links Navigation Crossword: August 16, 2025 The Week's daily crossword puzzle Codeword: August 16, 2025 The Week's daily codeword puzzle Sudoku medium: August 16, 2025 The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle You might also like The history of animal metaphors in propaganda The Explainer Rats, snakes and cockroaches among the imagery used to dehumanise political enemies and minority groups How AI is offering journalists protection from persecution in Venezuela Under the Radar Media organisations launch news show hosted by AI-generated avatars to 'shelter their real-life journalists' OpenAI, Condé Nast and the future of the media In the Spotlight Eye-catching deal for use of content to train chatbots, but other publishers are worried they're signing away their souls 'Is this the sleaziest parliament of all time?' Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day Netanyahu's Israeli media allies are apparently mad at Jared Kushner View More ▸ Contact Future's experts Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Advertise With Us The Week is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street