Al-Jazeera calls killing of its journalists a desperate effort to silence voices before Gaza’s invasion

Al-Jazeera has condemned what it described as the deliberate Israeli killing of its reporters and photographers in Gaza, calling it a “desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the invasion of Gaza.”

Late on Sunday, Al-Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammad Qariqqa, along with three other team members, were killed when Israeli forces bombed a tent for journalists near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

In its first statement on the incident, the network said: “We condemn the calculated killing of our correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammad Qariqqa and the photographers Ibrahim Zahir and Mohammad Nofal.”

It added: “The order to kill Anas al-Sharif — one of Gaza’s bravest journalists — and his colleagues is a desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the Gaza invasion.”

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The killings came two days after the Israeli government approved a plan to occupy the Gaza Strip entirely, as part of a war that has continued for 22 months.

Al-Jazeera said, “many Israeli military officials repeatedly incited and called for targeting Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues”, holding “the occupying army and its government responsible for targeting and killing its team”.

The network described the attack as “a blatant and deliberate assault on press freedom,” and stated the journalists were targeted “with prior knowledge, as confirmed in the Israeli army’s statement”, which acknowledged striking Al-Jazeera’s tent at the al-Shifa complex.

It added that the attack came amid a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the Israeli offensive has caused what it called “massacres”.

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