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AL JAZEERA EDITOR ON ISRAEL’S ASSASSINATION OF 5 REPORTERS  
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Interview by Amy Goodman
August 11, 2025
Democracy Now!
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_ Mohammed and Anas were the eye behind the lens catching all the
details to the world from Gaza City. They were the only two prominent
voices left in Gaza. _

Al-Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif, left, and Mohammed Qreiqeh, Al-Jazeera

 

We speak with Al Jazeera managing editor Mohamed Moawad after Israel
assassinated five of the network’s journalists in Gaza, including
veteran correspondent Anas al-Sharif, in an airstrike Sunday on a
media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital. Al Jazeera has condemned the
attack as an attempt to silence reporting on Israel’s planned
seizure and occupation of Gaza. The strike also killed Mohammed
Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Noufal, and came
just weeks after the United Nations and press freedom advocates warned
al-Sharif’s life was at risk following Israeli accusations linking
him to Hamas.

“The pattern is clear: degrading, delegitimizing, smearing, and then
killing,” says Moawad. He says the network, which is one of the few
international outlets with local journalists, is now “scrambling”
to cover the conflict as Israel prepares a renewed assault and
occupation of the territory. “They went after Al Jazeera because we
are the only international organization covering the conflict from the
frontline.”

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Gaza, where the Israeli
military has admitted assassinating one of the most prominent
journalists in Gaza, Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, along
with four of his colleagues at the network. They were killed in an
Israeli airstrike on their media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital. Al
Jazeera decried the targeted killing as a, quote, “desperate attempt
to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of
Gaza,” unquote.

Funerals were held today for a Anas al-Sharif, his fellow
correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, the cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen
Aliwa, and their assistant, Mohammed Noufal. The attack came just
weeks after Al Jazeera, the Committee to Protect Journalists and a top
U.N. official all warned al-Sharif’s life was in danger after Israel
accused him of being a member of Hamas. At the time, U.N. special
rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, blasted
Israel for spreading unfounded accusations about him. Today, she
called for sanctions against Israel for the murder of the Al Jazeera
team.

According to officials in Gaza, Israel has killed 238 journalists over
the past 22 months. This is part of an obituary report by Al Jazeera
on Anas al-Sharif.

AL JAZEERA REPORTER: He was one of the most recognizable voices
reporting from Gaza since the war began in October 2023, among the few
international journalists who remained in northern Gaza throughout the
conflict, broadcasting even as Israeli forces ordered more than a
million Palestinians to evacuate the area. Born in Jabaliya refugee
camp, al-Sharif graduated from Al-Aqsa University’s media faculty.
He became one of the key voices from Gaza’s frontlines.

Throughout the war, the 28-year-old reporter paid a high personal
price for his commitment to truth. In December 2023, his father was
killed when Israeli forces struck the family home in Jabaliya. This
came weeks after death threats. Israeli officers told him to stop
reporting, but he refused. When a ceasefire came into effect in
January, relieved Palestinians celebrated as Anas shed his protective
gear. The joy was short-lived. Israel broke the ceasefire in March.
And in recent weeks, the pressure intensified. The Israeli army
targeted him and his colleagues online, falsely accusing al-Sharif of
being a Hamas member. Al Jazeera strongly denies those claims. The
Committee to Protect Journalists warned his life was in acute danger.
They called for international protection, but it never came.

Anticipating his murder by Israeli forces, a preprepared message was
posted on his X account after his death, saying, “If these words
reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing
my voice, I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted
suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey
the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification, so that God
may bear witness against those who stayed silent and accepted our
killing.” He ends, “Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in
your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.”

AMY GOODMAN: Those the words of Anas al-Sharif, the Al Jazeera
correspondent, to be released only if he was dead. That obituary
report by Al Jazeera.

NPR reports
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marks the first time since October 2023 that Israel’s military so
quickly claimed responsibility after it killed a journalist in a
strike. In fact, it killed the whole five-member Al Jazeera team that
was camped out under a tent at Al-Shifa Hospital.

The attack came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said he may allow international journalists into Gaza.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: In fact, we have decided, and
I’ve ordered and directed the military to bring in foreign
journalists, more foreign journalists, a lot. There’s a problem of
assuring security, but I think it can be done in a way that is
responsible and careful to preserve your own safety. So, the directive
has been since — when is it? Two days ago.

AMY GOODMAN: “To preserve your own safety,” Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to the International Press Corps at
the news conference. Hours later, Israel assassinated the five-member
Al Jazeera team that had a media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital, and
took responsibility for that strike.

For more, we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by Mohamed Moawad,
managing editor of Al Jazeera.

Mohammed, our deepest condolences for the death of your Al Jazeera
staff in Gaza. Just before we went to air, I watched the Doha offices
of Al Jazeera, where scores of journalists and staff and workers
gathered, holding up the pictures of not only the five men who were
killed — and we’re talking about 25- and 26-year-olds; Anas
al-Sharif is 28 years old, younger than _Democracy Now!_ — not
only holding up their pictures, but holding up the pictures of other
Al Jazeera staff, journalists, correspondents, who have been killed in
the West Bank and Gaza. First, your response to Israel assassinating
five members of your team, five more members, led by Anas al-Sharif,
who had become famous worldwide to the audience who watches Al Jazeera
Arabic for describing what was happening in Gaza?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: Thanks, Amy, for having me, and thanks for the time.

It’s a devastating loss. Anas and Mohammed were the voices you heard
from Gaza’s shattered streets, the steady tune that made chaos
comprehensible. Mohammed and Anas were the eye behind the lens
catching all the details to the world from Gaza City. They were the
only two prominent voices left in Gaza.

You’ve heard Prime Minister Netanyahu admitting that no
international journalist is allowed to enter Gaza, until he directed
his team to allow them two days ago, subject to security issue. So,
you have seen that admittance. He said it in his own words. And at the
same time, you’ve seen silencing local journalists.

The pattern is clear: degrading, delegitimizing, smearing, and then
killing, justifying the killing by unfounded allegations. You
haven’t seen presented evidence. You haven’t seen any evidence of
these allegations. But the world would say that “the IDF claimed,
blah, blah, blah.” So, that’s what we have been seeing from the
Israeli government from the start of this war. The fact that they have
claimed the assassination of Anas al-Sharif right after carrying the
attack means that all other journalists killed by Israel, over 200
journalists killed by the IDF, were — you know, no one was held
accountable to that, so they felt like the journalistic community
around the world and the international community isn’t concerned
about what’s going on, so we can continue the pattern.

So, Anas and Mohammed’s voices aren’t silenced. The truth that
they have been carrying to the world since the beginning of the war
would echo in our coverage. We will continue the coverage. We aren’t
in the business of weaponizing our platform against anyone, but to
give voice to the voiceless and to make sure that the Gaza story is
told to the world. We are scrambling around right now to find someone
who can report it from inside Gaza City.

We have seen the announcement from the Israeli government that they
are unleashing a new operation in that area, and that came right
before targeting and killing Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, the
only two prominent and left voices there. So, the fact that Anas and
Mohammed weren’t on a frontline or in a military zone, not a
collateral damage like the IDF used to say — they were in the
last fragile refuge left for them, a tent that they fled to after
their homes were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. They were there.
They thought that this tent would — like, you know, they are in
tent, they are safe, the Israeli government wouldn’t target a
journalist or kill a journalist in his tent or something like that.
But, no, the assassination attempt was clear. The threats that Anas
received days ago and since the beginning of this war was true. They
have planned it.

And Anas was very resilient. I mean, we have been placing pressure on
Anas and his colleagues to stay safe, to stop the coverage. Anas
fainted at one moment on air while reporting because of starvation.
And he did not stop the coverage. Sometimes he struggled to feed his
family. He did not back down. He did not stop the coverage. He
continued the coverage. He used to say to us, “Gaza’s story is my
story. I’m not getting out of here. This is my people.” At a
certain time, Anas al-Sharif criticized the whole situation of the
international journalistic community and called for the journalistic
community to stand strong to prevent any harm for him. But it seems
like what’s happening right now is beyond the imagination, finally.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you — a sixth journalist, Mohammed
al-Khalidi, who worked as a freelance reporter, was also killed in the
strike that targeted your team, the five members of the Al Jazeera
team. That’s according to the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, right?
That tent was right up against the hospital in the courtyard. That’s
according to Al-Shifa Hospital director, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya. Do
you know anything about him?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: Of course. Those are photographers who were working
with Anas and Mohammed Qreiqeh and bringing all the images from inside
Gaza City. You know, the number of journalists are very limited in
Gaza City reporting from there, after targeting so many journalists in
that area. This is a frontline area. The whole area is a frontline
itself.

AMY GOODMAN: Also, just looking at Agence
France-Presse’s description
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the funeral today: “Their bodies, wrapped in white shrouds with
their faces exposed, were carried through narrow alleys to their
graves by mourners including men wearing blue journalists’ flak
jackets.”

His father, Anas al-Sharif’s father, was killed December of 2023
when an airstrike targeted their home in Jabaliya, where Anas himself
grew up.

I wanted to ask you, Mohamed — as we just said, I watched that
ceremony in your headquarters in Doha, where people stood in the
offices and also were beamed in, like Irene Khan, the special
rapporteur on freedom of expression. She called for Israel to be
sanctioned for the killing of these journalists and also talked about
— and we saw it in the report — Jodie Ginsberg, the head of the
Committee to Protect Journalists, Irene Khan, Al Jazeera itself
understood how targeted Anas was, when he was getting warnings by
Israeli officials to stop reporting. What are you calling for now?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: We have been calling, since the beginning of the
war, the international journalistic community to stand strong and take
actions. I mean, I think not enough action has been taken by news
outlets around the globe. We have seen more pressure being placed on
governments and authoritarian regimes back then during the Arab Spring
to allow journalists to cover what’s happening in Gaza. The fact
that no international journalist is allowed to enter Gaza means that
you can easily delegitimize any local coverage, as the Israeli
government used to do. But if you have an international journalist who
is reporting and bringing in eyewitness account of what’s happening,
that would somehow guarantee the safety of other journalists locally
in Gaza.

What we are seeing now, Amy, is something is dying in Gaza beyond the
bodies. The journalism profession itself is dying. I mean, this
profession is meant to illuminate the world and is being buried with
its witnesses. Two hundred — 200 — journalists in Gaza were
killed by Israeli airstrikes. You know, the space their deaths occupy
in much of the global media disproportionately is small. Sometimes in
modern history, news cycles would stop because there is a killing of a
journalist. That’s not the case right now. Something is
— something darker happening right now. They’re not targeting
journalists by starvation or bullets or airstrike. What we are seeing
now is silencing the coverage, the whole coverage. They went after Al
Jazeera because we are the only international organization covering
the conflict from the frontline. They went after us in Jerusalem,
shutting down our office, went after us in West Bank, shutting down
our office, went after our colleagues, killed our colleagues
reporting, bringing in eyewitness account from the ground. So, it’s
really alarming for the whole international journalistic community.
The profession is under siege in Gaza. The profession is under attack.
The fact that you’re not able to report on what’s going on means
that in coming days, when a dictatorship commits crimes and no one is
talking about, he will be immune of any international pressure placed
on him.

AMY GOODMAN: Mohamed Moawad, I want to thank you for being with us,
managing editor of Al Jazeera. We’re speaking to him in Washington,
D.C. And again, from all of us at _Democracy Now!_, our deepest
condolences on the death of your five-member team right outside Al
Jazeera hospital. It is not only a loss — Al-Shifa Hospital. It is a
loss not only, of course, though, to Al Jazeera, but to all of us as
journalists, to the whole community around the world. Thank you so
much for being with us.

* Israel-Gaza War
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* journalist deaths
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* Israeli attack
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