The death of a journalist

The death of a journalist (or six) carries a symbolism like that of any other person. When a group of Israeli soldiers sets their sights on a Palestinian child waiting, starving, in a food distribution line, they are killing the future of a people. It is a shot of hatred against the possibility of these people having a tomorrow, a life on Earth.

When the Israeli government decides to carry out a targeted airstrike on a journalists' tent near Al-Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, it is deliberately attempting to kill the truth. It is an attack on the world's right to information, a tiny right for authoritarian states. It's no wonder journalists are always among the primary targets of totalitarianism and anti-democratic ideas. There's a rage that extends from the comment sections on social media (the infamous insult "trash journalist") to the desire, put into practice, to decimate them.

It's clear: journalists form a barrier that blocks with their hands—literally, the hands they use to type on a keyboard—disinformation, conspiracy theories, misleading propaganda, and war crimes, exposing them to the world for all to see.

A journalist wouldn't write that Al-Sharif was the leader of a Hamas cell, "responsible for carrying out missile attacks against Israeli civilians and Israel Defense Forces troops," without credible documentation to support the claim. This is what the Israeli forces wrote in a statement, claiming responsibility for the attack on the journalists' tent.

Anas al-Sharif, one of the most well-known and prominent Palestinian journalists, was murdered on Sunday at the age of 28. With him were journalist Mohammed Qreiqeh, photojournalists Ibrahim Zaher and Moumin Alaywa, and technical assistant Mohammed Noufal, all from the Al Jazeera television network. Freelance reporter Mohammed Al-Khalidi was also killed. Several other journalists were injured.

The United Nations, Reporters Without Borders, and Al Jazeera have stated that there is no evidence that Anas belonged to Hamas. "This is a pattern we've seen in Israel for decades: they kill a journalist and then accuse him, without evidence, of being a terrorist," Jodie Ginsberg, president of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told the BBC.

Anas al-Sharif was part of a Reuters team that, in 2004, won a Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News Photography category for its coverage of the war in Gaza. He had already been threatened by Israel and was, according to Al Jazeera, "one of the most courageous journalists in Gaza." Because he is so well-known, he will perhaps become the face representing the 186 journalists who have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli offensive in October 2023. This number is provided by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Israel prohibits international journalists from entering Gaza, leaving those already there to report on the atrocities. On the same day these journalists were murdered, Sunday, August 10, Benjamin Netanyahu announced an offensive against Gaza City because, he stated, "We have no other option to finish the job."

Other journalists will be there, under fire and hunger, to show us how Israel finishes its work.