Israel Assassinates Al Jazeera Gaza Reporting Team…and Lies About It

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Israel assassinated virtually the entire team of reporters covering the Gaza genocide in a drone strike on the media tent outside Al Shifa hospital, which itself was destroyed earlier in yet another Israeli war crime.  Most prominent among the murder victims was Anas al-Sharif, whose voice was heard throughout the Middle East. He and his team bravely reported on the genocide despite being targeted by Israeli propaganda, which always precedes an Israeli assassination:

It came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In a July 24 video, Israel’s army spokesperson Avichay Adraee attacked Al Jazeera and accused al-Sharif of being part of Hamas’ military wing.

The propaganda mill falsely claimed that al-Sharif (and virtually all of the 200 journalists murdered since 10/7) were paid assets of Hamas.  It offered no proof for this claim except a purported pay ledger, purportedly listing them on the group’s payroll.  It has never produced this evidence.  Many media outlets reporting on the killings have not noted this in their reporting, lending the account a he-said she-said status.  In fact, Israel has explicitly, publicly and brazenly taken responsibility for the murders.

972 reveals that the IDF hosts a “legitimization cell.” whose mission is to dig up dirt on Palestinian journalists to prove they are terrorists, and then proceed to eliminate them, as they did al-Sharif and his colleagues.  Often they either invent the documentation, misinterpret it, or exagerrate it.  This often results in their murder, again, as in this case.  From the disinformation idcell, it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to the social media hasbarafia who amplify these false claims.  Once amplified by a sufficient number of propaganda drones, they take on a life of their own.  In the BE (before Elon) era this used to be inauthentic behavior.  Nowadays, it’s the rule rather than exception.

Media outlets like the NY Times and many others have abandoned these brave journalists (watch Clarissa Ward’s powerful, moving video). They treat them as Israel does. There is a false reluctance to acknowledge they are journalists and not, as it claims, terrorists.  This is abominable.  If Israeli journalists were killed reporting a story, how would global media react?  Would they heed any claim by the murderers that they “deserved it” because they were terrorists? Would they dare express such sentiment? It is inconceivable.

Al-Sharif left a searing statement–his final words in the event of his martyrdom:

This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.

Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my…

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) August 10, 2025

The heart-rending reality is that al-Sharif was an extraordinary human being who made an immense contribution to his people.  While the country which murdered him has offered the world nothing but hatred, brutality and mass murder.

Killing Palestinian journalists with Impunity

This is a disturbing escalation in the wholesale elimination of media coverage of the genocide.  At least, when it murdered another Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, it made multiple claims that either it wasn’t responsible at all; or that it was an accident.  Now, Israel dispenses with such niceties: We killed them. We intended to kill them. They deserved to die.

There can be only one reason for the changed approach: Israel knows it has impunity to commit such war crimes. The world refuses to hold it accountable because it doesn’t have the will to to do so.  The international justice system is toothless.  Nations hold conferences and promote chimerical two-state solutions, which only divert energy from real solutions.

It also assassinated Palestinian poet, Rifaat al-Areer at the behest of Zionist media influencer, Bari Weiss.  He had jokingly referred to a Zionist hoax claiming Hamas burned Israeli babies in an oven on 10/7. She disingenuously claimed that he treated the story as fact and was making fun of the dead babies.  Of course, he was saying the story was fake and his joke implied that. Except for mirthless Zionist propagandists.  Her tweet attacking Rifaat legitimized his murder.

The NY Times profiled Al-Areer in 2021.  That too put a target on his back.  All Palestinian voices–journalists and poets–must be silenced, just as Israel seeks to erase every  Gazan.  If you raise your head above the parapet, it will be blown off.

On social media, Israel’s hasbara trolls have trotted out the same argument offered by Israel: they weren’t journalists, they were Hamas.  The argument is repeated so often from so many such accounts that it clearly is an orchestrated campaign sponsored by the Israeli foreign or the Strategic Affairs ministries, which have each allocated hundreds of millions for just such propaganda operations.

They understand that the murders will arouse fierce protests abroad. Instead of lying about the attack, they decided to tough in out, assuming they can weather the opprobrium.  One major tool is social media apologetics.  Muster thousands of bots and some legitimate accounts in a coordinated campaign to muddy the waters.  In doing so, they confuse the issues and diminish the impact of the universal denunciations.  Another weapon is celebrity hasbarists like Michael Rapaport who, for all his “fame,” offers a pathetic litany of genocide boosterism.

The real reason, perhaps the most important one, is that Israel plans to invade and occupy all of Gaza. In the process, it will murders thousands more Palestinians, destroy what little hasn’t yet been destroyed of Gaza, and likely kill most or all of the 20 remaining living Israeli hostages.  It wants no witnesses. No journalists to report on its genocide.  Like with any crime boss, it wants to eliminate witnesses to the crime.  Similarly, Israel erases Palestinians: from their villages, their homes, their lives.  That’s why Israel has murdered 200 journalists since 10/7 and why it eliminated al-Sharif and his colleagues.

Israel is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a country.  It is a foul, evil place. It will eventually be cursed for its crimes. And no one will mourn. Maybe they will not cheer, as Israeli are doing with every dead journalist or every starved child. But they certainly will not mourn.