Late Sunday evening, the soldiers of Israel targeted the correspondents of Gaza of Tel Aviv Tribune Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh and three others, killing them in a drone strike against their media tent at the door of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Journalists killed had spent the last 22 months documenting the current conflict and its impact on their community.
Al-Sharif, 28, and Qreiqeh, 33, both survive by their wives and a little boy and a girl.
Qreiqeh, who was a only child, lost his mother in Gaza in March 2024, when Israeli forces stormed the Al-Shifa hospital. He looked for his mother for two weeks, finally finding his body decaying on the stairs of the establishment.
Witnesses said that she had been shot dead in cold blood.
Despite personal sorrow and atrocious circumstances, Al-Sharif and Qreiqeh continued to document the War of Israel in Gaza, which is increasingly considered a genocide by criticism from around the world.
The latest al-Sharif tweet on X, displayed a few minutes before being killed, warned that Israel’s last plan to invade Gaza was likely to muzzle the Palestinian voices in the besieged enclave.
“If this madness does not stop, Gaza will be reduced to the ruins, the voice of its residents in silence, their faces erased-and the story will remember you as a silent witness of a genocide that you have chosen not to stop,” he posted.
Sacrifice and courage
Like all the Palestinians of Gaza, Al-Sharif and Qreiqeh were born and grew up under an Israeli occupation. During most of their lives, Israel has imposed a complete blocking of land, sea and air on the enclave, by transforming it effectively into what human rights groups describe as an outdoor prison.
The seat affected all aspects of Palestinian life – the means of subsistence, travel and family ties and forced Al -Sharif and Qreiqeh to devote their lives to tell the world the struggle of their people under the brutal occupation of Israel.
Al-Sharif studied media studies at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza and was known for its reports on the Israeli military campaign which began on October 7, 2023, documenting its humanitarian and civil impacts.
Yaser Al -Banna, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza, said that when Israel had ordered all 2.2 million Palestinians to flee to the south – an act that is likely to have a war crime – Al -Sharif remained in the North to document the events and actions of the Israeli army.
“His life was in danger of the Israeli strikes (at the time in the North). But he has always gone to the scene of each Israeli explosion to discover Israel’s crime, just five minutes after taking place,” Al-Banna told Al Jazera.
Al-Banna added that he had established a solid professional relationship with Qreiqeh since last year.
At the time, Al-Banna was in the south of Gaza and Qreiqeh was in the north, and they often exchanged contacts and exchanged information to better cover the humanitarian impact of the genocidal war of Israel.
“He never waited for a moment to help me or to help anyone,” said Al-Banna about Qreiqeh. “My impression of Qreiqeh was that he was always patient and calm.”
Colleagues and friends
In October 2024, Israel published unleated affirmations that Al-Sharif was one of the six Palestinian journalists affiliated with a Hamas cell, which Tel Aviv Tribune denied several times.
Human rights defense groups, including the Committee to protect journalists (CPJ), note that Israel often marks Palestinian journalists as “terrorists” without providing proof.
From that moment, Al-Sharif knew that his life was in danger.
“All this happens because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip their night and damages their image in the world. They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally,” he told CPJ in July.
Israeli threats have made Gaza hesitating to give Al-Sharif interviews for fear that Israel can kill him and everyone around him at any time.
However, most of them congratulated his bravery and continued to support him as he reported the eye of the storm. Al-Banna added that Qreiqeh continued to work with Al-Sharif, despite the risks.
They knew that they could both die at any time from the Israeli bombing.
“The relationship between them was very strong,” said Al-Banna, recognizing that most people knew that Al-Sharif would probably be targeted.
“Gaza journalists got closer to Al-Sharif. We admitted that we would all live together and then died together,” added Al-Banna.
Beach
Speaking from Tel Aviv Tribune’s studio in Doha, Qatar, their colleague Tamer Almisshal revealed that Al-Sharif and Qreiqeh were exhausted mentally and physically leading to their death.
They barely extinguished their phones because Israel killed so many people, forcing them to report on the extermination of their people at each moment of awakening, he explained.
“They are journalists. These are models,” said Almisshal, holding tears.
“I make a commitment, after Anas’ death: we will continue to broadcast their message in a responsible manner and with complete professionalism,” he added.
It is a feeling shared by the journalists of Gaza who carry the burden of the declaration on the genocide of Israel alone.
Since October 7, Israel has banned the entry of international journalists and killed nearly 270 journalists and media workers in Gaza.
Saleh Jafar, 28, is a Palestinian journalist in Gaza who promises to keep her colleagues’ memory. He said that Israel was targeting the media to prevent the world from seeing his crimes in Gaza.
“They cannot silence the rest of us. There are a million more (voice in Gaza) like Anas, and there are a million more (voice) like Mohammed.
“Our voices and our images will continue to be (broadcast) in front of the (Israeli) terror and the threats.”
