CPJ Voices Concern Over Safety Of Al Jazeera's Gaza Reported Anas Al Sharif After IDF's Comment (image @AnasAlSharif0)

The Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) voiced concern over the safety of Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Anas Al Sharif after an Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) spokesperson accused him of “presenting a lie” in his coverage of Israel’s August 10 massacre in a school building, where thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltered.

“We are deeply concerned about the safety of Al Jazeera’s northern Gaza correspondent Anas Al Sharif after the IDF’s claim that he was ‘covering up’ for Hamas and Islamic Jihad after Israel killed dozens in its Saturday strike on a Gaza City school complex. Al Jazeera journalists have been paying a devastating price for documenting the war. They and all journalists should be protected and allowed to work freely”, CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said.

Anas was covering the massacre of Taba’een school in Gaza City, in which over 100 Palestinians were brutally killed. They were killed while gathered for the dawn prayer. The intensity of the attack was huge that most of the bodies were shattered. Palestinians had to collect body parts in plastic bags.

Read also: “We Are Waiting For Our Turn”: Palestinian Journalist From Gaza Rips Off His Protective Gear

After touring the place, Anas, who was near to the site during the time of attack, said he cannot describe what is happening.

“Bodies are everywhere and the medics are retrieving them and body parts everywhere … it’s a big massacre”, he said.

The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said Anas is “covering up the crimes of Hamas and [Islamic] Jihad taking shelter inside schools. I am convinced that he knows the names of a great number of the Hamas terrorists among those killed in the school. But he presents a lie, the motivation for which has nothing to do with the residents of Gaza”, as quoted by Times of Israel.

بورك جهدك وحماك الله يا صوت غزة عبر #الجزيرة .. فخرا بأنس الشريف وبجميع الزملاء فرسان الصوت والصورة pic.twitter.com/eDO4GnBkmI

— Tamer Almisshal | تامر المسحال (@TamerMisshal) August 10, 2024

The comment came under a post shared by another Al Jazeera correspondent Tamer Almissha, who wrote about Anas on his X account. He wrote, “May God protect you. Proud of Anas al-Sharif and all our colleagues, knights of audio and video”.

Read also: Israel’s War On Journalists And Media Workers

Al Jazeera network condemned the “blatant act of intimidation and incitement” by Israel against Anas. In a statement issued, it said IDF’s comments “are not only an attack on Anas’s character and integrity but also a clear attempt to stifle the truth and silence those who are courageously reporting from Gaza”.

Holding Israeli government fully responsible for the safety of Anas, Al Jazeera call upon the “international community to stand in solidarity with Anas Al-Sharif and all journalists who risk their lives to bring the reality of Gaza to the world”.

The media house also highlighted the killing of their correspondent and Anas’ friend, Ismail Al Ghoul, and Rami Al Rifi.

“We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for Anas’s safety and warn that this rhetoric signals an intention to target him, just as they did with Ismail Al Ghoul and Rami Al Rifi, in a bid to conceal the truth of what is happening in Gaza”, read the statement.

Anas’ father was killed by Israeli army as they hit his home in the Jabalia refugee camp. The attack came days after he received multiple phone calls from officers in the Israeli army instructing him to cease coverage and leave northern Gaza. Additionally, he received voice notes on WhatsApp disclosing his location, said CPJ.

Israel has been accused deliberately targeting Gaza journalists. Ismail and Rami were killed by the Israeli, while they were travelling in a white car that was clearly marked. Both the journalists were wearing the Press vest. They were killed while going to cover near the assassinated Hamas political burau chief, Ismail Haniyeh’s house.

Read also: Al-Jazeera Journalist Freed After Israeli Force Took Him From Al-Shifa Hospital

After the killing of Ismail and Rami sparked wide fury, IDF released a statement, which appeared to confirm that it deliberately targeted al-Ghoul, boasting that the journalist has been “eliminated”. As part of his role in the military wing, al-Ghoul instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicizing attacks against [Israeli] troops”, Israeli army said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Anas and other journalists from Gaza protested the killing of Ismail and Rami by removing their Press vests, as it clearly was of no use. “This Press vest is the vest that global institutions preach about. This vest did not protect my colleague Ismail”, he said.

More than 160 journalists were killed in Gaza since the beginning of the ongoing brutal genocidal war on Gaza. Israel has been accused of deliberately targeting journalists, schools, aid workers, and ambulances.

Without providing any credible proof, Israel continued to accuse the killed journalists as Hamas operatives.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented the killing of at least seven journalists and media workers associated with Al Jazeera — which Israel has banned from operating in the country — since the start of the war between Israel and Gaza last October