by Jodie Ginsberg CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists
in The Guardian
‘If Israel can wipe
out an entire news crew without the international community so much as
batting an eye, what will stop further attacks on reporters.’ Photograph: Mohammed Badra/EPA
Israel always boasted that it was the only country in the region to support press freedom. That boast rang hollow even before the current war. Now, it’s not even pretending. On Sunday, Israel openly and brazenly killed six journalists as they were sheltering in a tent that housed reporters and media workers.
Israel accuses one of those journalists – Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif – of being a terrorist. It has not said what crime it believes the others have committed that would justify killing them. The laws of war are clear: journalists are civilians. To target them deliberately in war is to commit a war crime.
It is hardly surprising that Israel believes it can get away with murder. In the two decades preceding 7 October, Israeli forces killed 20 journalists. No one has ever been held accountable for any of those deaths, including that of the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whose killing in 2022 sent shock waves through the region. Abu Akleh, a dual US-Palestinian citizen, was a household name in the Middle East, just as al-Sharif became a familiar face for audiences for his coverage of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Israel first began making threats against al-Sharif shortly after the start of the war. The journalist reported receiving multiple phone calls from officers in the Israeli army instructing him to cease coverage and leave northern Gaza, as well as voice notes on WhatsApp disclosing his location. In December 2023, an Israeli airstrike hit his family home, killing the journalist’s 90-year-old father.
A year later, the Israeli army alleged publicly that Anas al-Sharif was a terrorist – claims it repeated last month shortly after Anas al-Sharif exposed the rampant levels of starvation throughout Gaza as a result of Israel’s refusal to allow in sufficient food aid. An Israeli spokesperson accused al-Sharif of lying about the famine – despite corroboration of widespread starvation by independent and international groups.
The Committee to Protect Journalists had seen this playbook from Israel before: a pattern in which journalists are accused by Israel of being terrorists with no credible evidence. Indeed, we were so concerned that al-Sharif was being targeted that we issued a public statement urging his protection.
Instead, al-Sharif was killed alongside his colleagues in an attack that Israel has openly admitted was aimed at killing the journalist... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/13/israel-killing-gaza-journalists-anas-al-sharif