Al Jazeera journalist being targeted by Israeli smear campaign

Anas Al-Sharif, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza correspondent and one of the few journalists still reporting from Northern Gaza, is being targeted by a long running smear campaign led by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

Al Jazeera: Speaking the truth is a threat to Israel in this time of genocide

Talking about this intimidation, Al-Sharif, 28, said on social media:

Once again, the Israeli army spokesperson has launched a campaign of threats and incitement against me because of my work as a journalist with Al Jazeera. I reaffirm: I, Anas Al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground — as it is, without bias. At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat.

The latest accusations directed at Al-Sharif from the IOF spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, have falsely accused him of being a member of Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam, since 2013. Adraee also accused him of moving during the war “to work for the most criminal and offensive channel” after he broke down live on air earlier this week, when a woman fainted in front of him from hunger whilst he was reporting on the occupation’s enforced starvation campaign against Palestinians.

Since then, the IOF Spokesperson has also called Al Jazeera’s reporting on Gaza’s starvation “a fabricated drama starring Anas Al-Sharif, who sheds crocodile tears”, and his sadness “propaganda”.

Al-Sharif’s life in acute danger

On Saturday 26 July, Adraee posted the following statement on X:

To the self-proclaimed journalist, the mouthpiece of Hamas’s intellectual terrorism, it is truly astonishing that you are speaking today about the suffering of the people of Gaza, while in reality you are part of the lying media machine that promotes propaganda and distorts the facts. Let’s be frank: you do not represent Gaza or its suffering, because you are part of the Hamas family and refuse to hold this Muslim Brotherhood movement responsible.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has issued a statement saying it is “gravely worried” about the safety of Al-Sharif, who believes this campaign against him is a precursor to his assassination. CPJ and human rights organisations have called urgently for international protection for him due to the acute danger to his life.

Israel has murdered more journalists than in any other conflict ever recorded

Since the start of this modern-day genocide, 232 journalists have been targeted and killed by Israel in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office last week. That is an average of 13 per month – making it the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded.

At least six of these worked for Al Jazeera. This killing is intentional: an attempt by Israel to silence the truth and hide its many war crimes. Along with the rest of Gaza’s population, if the bullets and bombs do not kill the journalists, intentional starvation and disease will – yet still they risk everything to bring us the truth.

Al-Sharif, who has not stopped reporting for the past 22 months, said last week:

Today I say it outright, and with indescribable pain- I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment…. Gaza is dying and we die with it.

Al-Sharif and other journalists: tired and starving, but won’t be silenced

Al-Sharif, who comes from Jabalia refugee camp in the North of the Gaza Strip, has become a target for repeated intimidation and threats from the occupation.

In November 2023, he was repeatedly harassed by the military, who phoned him up multiple times, and ordered him to stop reporting, and to leave Northern Gaza. In December 2023, his father, Jamal, was killed by an Israeli strike which also destroyed his home, while last year he was one of six Al Jazeera journalists accused of being affiliated with Hamas, by the IOF.

But although he faces constant threats, and fears for his family’s safety, Al-Sharif says he remains determined to continue reporting on the suffering of the people in Gaza. He told CPJ: