Five Al Jazeera journalists killed in Israeli strike on Gaza City

Israeli forces killed Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and seven other people in a targeted airstrike Sunday outside Gaza City's Shifa Hospital complex, hospital officials said.

The strike killed al-Sharif, another Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Qureiqa and three camera operators who were sheltering near the hospital's emergency building, which was damaged in the attack. Three more people were killed in the strike.

The Israeli military confirmed it had targeted al-Sharif, stating he was a Hamas cell leader who "posed as a journalist," a claim al-Sharif and his network had previously denied.

The IDF posted intelligence and documents it said it had found in Gaza linking him directly to Hamas.

The military also claimed al-Sharif had "advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops".

The strike came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In a 24 July video, Israel’s army spokesperson Avichay Adraee criticised the Qatar-based network and accused al-Sharif of being part of Hamas’ military wing.

Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) raised concerns for his safety, saying he was targeted by "an Israeli military smear campaign.” Al Jazeera condemned the attack on Sunday, labelling it a "targeted assassination".

Al-Sharif, a well-known 28-year-old Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, has extensively reported on the war in Gaza from inside the Strip amid an ongoing media blackout imposed by Israel.

A last message that appeared to have been posted by a friend appeared on Anas al-Sharif's X account shortly after his death.

In the post, the Al Jazeera correspondent said in his "will and final message" that he "gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people."

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

Al-Sharif and other journalists killed on Sunday are the latest to die in what observers have called the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern times.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, some 186 journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.