The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of Al Jazeera Arabic northern Gaza correspondent Anas Al Sharif after an Israel Defense Forces’ spokesperson accused him of “presenting a lie” in his coverage of Israel’s August 10 airstrike that killed dozens of Gazans in a school building housing Palestinians displaced by the war.
“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,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “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.”
Israel has said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were operating from a mosque inside the school complex.
Al Jazeera Media Network condemned Israel’s “blatant act of intimidation and incitement” against Anas, saying that the 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.”
Al Sharif has previously received threats over his journalism work and his father was killed on December 11, 2023, after an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Jabalia.
CPJ has documented the killing of at least seven journalists and media workers affiliated with Al Jazeera – which Israel has banned from operating inside Israel – since the start of the Israel-Gaza war last October.