Al Jazeera correspondents among journalists killed in Gaza City air strike

Al Jazeera accuses Israel of assassinating reporter Anas al-Sharif, killed in Gaza strike alongside colleague and six others

Anas al-Sharif has been killed in what Al Jazeera described as a ‘targeted assassination’ (Al Jazeera via AP)

Israel’s military has targeted a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent with an air strike, killing him, another journalist and at least six other people.

Anas al-Sharif and his Al Jazeera colleague Mohamed Qureiqa were among those killed while sheltering outside the Gaza City Hospital complex late on Sunday.

Officials at Shifa Hospital confirmed the deaths and said the strike also killed four other journalists and two other people. It also damaged the entrance to the hospital complex’s emergency building.

People inspect the destroyed tent where journalists, including Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qureiqa, were killed by an Israeli air strike (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel’s military described Mr al-Sharif as the leader of a Hamas cell – an allegation that Al Jazeera and Mr al-Sharif had previously dismissed as baseless.

The incident marked the first time during the war that Israel’s military has swiftly claimed responsibility after a journalist was killed in a strike.

It came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused Mr al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In a July 24 video, Israel’s army spokesman Avichay Adraee attacked Al Jazeera and accused Mr al-Sharif of being part of Hamas’s military wing.

Al Jazeera called the strike a “targeted assassination” and accused Israeli officials of incitement, connecting Mr al-Sharif’s death to the allegations that both the broadcaster and correspondent had denied.

“Anas and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices from within Gaza, providing the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground coverage of the devastating realities endured by its people,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.

The journalists are the latest to be killed in what observers have called the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern times (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Mr al-Sharif reported a nearby bombardment minutes before his death. In a social media post that Al Jazeera said was written to be posted in case of his death, he bemoaned the devastation and destruction that war had wrought and bid farewell to his wife, son and daughter.

“I never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification,” the 28-year-old wrote.

The journalists are the latest to be killed in what observers have called the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern times. The Committee to Protect Journalists said on Sunday that at least 186 have been killed in Gaza.

Mr al-Sharif began reporting for Al Jazeera a few days after war broke out. He was known for reporting on Israel’s bombardment in northern Gaza, and later for the starvation gripping much of the territory’s population.

In a July broadcast he cried on air as a woman behind him collapsed from hunger.

“I am talking about slow death of those people,” he said at the time.

Al Jazeera is blocked in Israel and soldiers raided its offices in the occupied West Bank last year, ordering them to close.

Mr al-Sharif’s death comes weeks after the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Israel had targeted him with a smear campaign.

“Israel’s pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” Sara Qudah, the group’s regional director, said.