DOHA, August 11. /TASS/. The Al Jazeera TV channel condemned Israel's killing of five of its journalists who worked in Gaza City, calling the Israeli attack an attempt to silence journalists ahead of the seizure of the Palestinian enclave.
"The order to assassinate Anas Al Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza," the TV channel said in a statement. Al Jazeera blamed Israeli troops and the government for "deliberately targeting and assassinating its journalists," emphasizing that its staff covering the situation in the Gaza Strip experienced "the hunger and suffering they documented through their lenses."
Earlier, the Qatari TV channel reported the deaths of four of its reporters in Gaza due to an Israeli strike. The victims were reporters Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, as well as cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal. Later, another cameraman from the channel was added to the list of the dead. At the time of the Israeli strike, which was carried out shortly before midnight local time using a drone, the journalists were in a tent located at the entrance to Al-Shifa Hospital. Seven people were killed in the shelling.
In turn, the Israeli army said it had killed "terrorist Anas Al-Sharif, who posed as a journalist for the Al Jazeera network." According to the military, he led one of the units of the Palestinian movement Hamas and was "responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops."