CAIRO/JERUSALEM — A prominent Al Jazeera journalist, who had previously been threatened by Israel, was killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday in an attack condemned by journalists and rights groups.

Israel’s military said it targeted and killed Anas Al Sharif, alleging he had headed a Hamas militant cell and was involved in rocket attacks on Israel.

Al Jazeera, which is funded by the Qatari government, rejected the assertion, and before his death Al Sharif had also denied such claims by Israel.

“Anas Al Sharif and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices in Gaza conveying the tragic reality to the world,” Al Jazeera said.

Al Sharif, 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who died in an airstrike on a tent near Al Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. A hospital official said two other people died.

A sixth journalist, local freelance reporter Mohammad Al-Khaldi, was also killed in the strike, medics at Al Shifa Hospital said on Monday.

‘One of Gaza’s Bravest Journalists’

Calling Al Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”, Al Jazeera said the attack was a “desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza”.

The other journalists killed were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, and Mohammed Noufal, Al Jazeera said.

“The deliberate targeting of journalists by Israel in the Gaza Strip reveals how these crimes are beyond imagination,” Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, said on X.

UN Condemns the Killings

The U.N. human rights office condemned the killings, saying the actions by Israel’s military represented a “grave breach of international humanitarian law” as Palestinians reported the heaviest bombardments in weeks.

Its post on social media platform X was accompanied by a photograph of flattened blue tents next to a bullet-ridden wall in Gaza City.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “gravely concerned” about the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza, his spokesperson said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that Al Sharif led a Hamas cell and “was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians” and Israeli troops, citing intelligence and documents it said were discovered in Gaza as evidence but which it did not disclose.

Israel Says Killed Journalists Are Members of Militant Groups

Israel denies deliberately targeting journalists, saying many of those killed in Israeli airstrikes were members of Islamist militant groups, working under the guise of the press.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted undated photos on X that appeared to show Al Sharif with Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Hamas October 2023 attack on Israel, and other Hamas officials. Reuters could not verify their authenticity.

It was not clear when the purported images were taken nor how the military acquired them. Adraee wrote that only a “terrorist” would be seen with Hamas officials, without providing any context as to why Al Sharif, a journalist, had allegedly met them.

Al Sharif Part of Pulitzer Winning Team

People gathered at Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in the heart of the Gaza Strip on Monday to mourn the journalists. Friends, colleagues and relatives consoled each another, many wiping away tears as they bid farewell.

Al Sharif was previously part of a Reuters team which in 2024 won a Pulitzer Prize in the category of Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is the deadliest on record for journalists, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ Costs of War project.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said 238 journalists have been killed since the war started on October 7, 2023. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 186 journalists have been killed in the Gaza conflict.

A press freedom group and a United Nations expert previously warned that Al Sharif’s life was in danger due to his reporting from Gaza. U.N. Special Rapporteur Irene Khan said last month that Israel’s claims against him were unsubstantiated.

Al Sharif’s Pre-Recorded Final Statement

Al Jazeera said Al Sharif had left a social media message to be posted in the event of his death that read, “…I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent”.

Israel’s military had named Al Sharif in October as one of six Gaza journalists it alleged were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, citing documents it said showed lists of people who completed training courses and salaries.

“Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence,” the network said in a statement at the time.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which in July urged the international community to protect Al Sharif, said in a statement that Israel had failed to provide any evidence to back up its allegations against him.

Al Sharif, whose X account showed more than 500,000 followers, posted on the platform minutes before his death that Israel had been intensely bombarding Gaza City for more than two hours.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, said the killing may signal the start of an Israeli offensive.

Netanyahu Plans New Gaza Offensive

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will launch a new offensive to dismantle Hamas strongholds in Gaza, where a hunger crisis is escalating after 22 months of war.

“The assassination of journalists and the intimidation of those who remain pave the way for a major crime that the occupation is planning to commit in Gaza City,” Hamas said in a statement.

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(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Ahmed Tolba; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Emma Farge in Geneva and Alistair Smout in London; Editing by Michael Perry, Sharon Singleton, Michael Georgy, Alexandra Hudson and Ed Osmond)