Israel’s Attack on Palestinian Journalists Shows Why Journalism Matters

Since October 2023, Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists in Gaza, among the latest were four Al Jazeera staff members who were deliberately targeted while sheltering in a tent outside al-Shifa Hospital: cameraman Ibrahim Zaher, cameraman Mohammad Noufal, correspondent Mohammad Qreiqe, and correspondent Anas al-Sharif. The killing of 28-year-old Anas al-Sharif was almost incomprehensible to those who had spent the last two years watching the genocide unfold through his coverage; he became a symbol of resistance who delivered the story of his people despite enduring overwhelming adversity. The international community’s response was swift and unequivocal. The United Nations condemned the killing, with experts labelling it a war crime aimed at silencing journalists in Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had previously called for al-Sharif’s protection and warned of threats to his life, describing them as part of a smear campaign and a precursor to his assassination.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, host Tamer al-Mishal, his cheeks stained with tears, spoke of how tired al-Sharif had been. “He requested from the management of Al Jazeera for rest” a day before he was martyred because he had continued without pause with his coverage for weeks, his body wrecked by famine. “Anas al-Sharif and correspondent Muhammad Qreiqa slept in the streets,” al-Mishal said, never abandoning the land of Gaza or its people. In an interview with the wife of Mohammad Qreiqa, Hala, she described him as a deeply compassionate and kind man who never deprived his children of anything. “Mohammad was an orphan…so when his first child was born, it filled him with overwhelming joy, because he finally had someone to stand by his side.” With Israeli threats against him looming, Qreiqa entrusted his wife with his children should he be killed, asking her never to deprive them of anything. Like all journalists in Gaza, Qreiqa had a deep bond with his colleagues, namely Anas al-Sharif. “He knew Anas was under threat,” Hala said. “Yet he stayed by his side at all times.” 

The Palestinians who have been chronicling the Israeli-US genocide in Gaza are living testaments to an indigenous people’s rejection of invisibility. They revealed the price one pays for confronting the mechanisms of erasure that so often marginalize them to the vacant existence of mere footnotes in this campaign of ethnic cleansing. The work of Palestinian journalists is inseparable from the struggle for justice: the right to be seen, the right to bear witness, and the right to live with dignity. The courage of al-Sharif, Qreiqa, and all those lost on the path to liberate Palestine reveals that even under the most brutal conditions, truth cannot be extinguished and that their labor serves not just as the uncompromising defense of moral accountability, but a defense of historical memory. 

Honoring the memories of Anas al-Sharif and those who have taken up the pen and camera as a form of resistance requires that we, namely their media colleagues, elevate their voices and the demands of their people. In his last will and testament—which he penned in anticipation of his death—al-Sharif wrote that he had given all his efforts and strength “to be a support and a voice for my people since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of Jabalia refugee camp,” and urged people not to let the chains silence them from speaking out for Palestine. “Be bridges toward liberating the land and the people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland.”