‘Precursor to assassination’: Gaza reporter Anas Al-Sharif on Israeli threats; CPJ sounds alarm over journalist safety
Committee to Protect Journalists expresses immediate alarm over threats by IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee, who accuses Al-Sharif of being a terrorist
Anas Al-Sharif, a news reporter in Gaza, is allegedly facing a direct threat from Israel to his life after continued online attacks by a spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). “A precursor to my assassination” is how the 28-year-old Palestinian journalist has described it.
Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news outlet for which he works, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have expressed immediate alarm over the threats by IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, who accuses Al-Sharif of being a terrorist.
“Avichay Adraee’s campaign is not only a media threat or an image destruction; it is a real-life threat,” Al-Sharif was quoted as saying by the CPJ.
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Al-Sharif is married and has at least one child, a daughter, his Instagram page shows. Some members of his extended family have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
“All of this is happening because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip harms them and damages their image in the world," Al-Sharif said of Israel, whom he accused of wanting to “morally assassinate" him.
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Israel has already banned Al Jazeera in the country and from the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank.
The IDF's Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee has alleged that Al-Sharif is a Hamas member, particularly since the journalist cried on air this month while reporting on starvation in Gaza.
In videos on July 23 and 24 — around the time Israel and the US withdrew their representatives from truce talks with Hamas — IDF spokesperson Adraee said the reporting on starving Palestinians was “a fabricated drama starring Anas Al-Sharif, who sheds crocodile tears".
In earlier videos the same month, Adraee called Al Sharif's and the channel's work “intellectual terrorism". He was responding to a post by Al-Sharif on his X account that said: “As a citizen of Gaza, I support a ceasefire by any means now. We are not living; we are just trying to survive.”
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CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said the latest accusations by the IDF “represent an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif”. She called on the international community to protect him.
Al Jazeera, in a statement on Friday, said it “denounces these relentless efforts, which have consistently incited against its staff since the beginning of its coverage of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza”.
The IDF has reportedly stuck by Adraee’s stance in his latest video of July 24, in which he accused Al-Sharif of being a member of Al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas.
Global news organisations such as the BBC, AFP, AP and Reuters earlier this week issued a joint statement about being “desperately concerned” for journalists in Gaza amid warnings of mass starvation.
‘IDF has murdered journalists before’
While foreign journalists are not allowed free access to Gaza for months now, the CPJ says Israel has deliberately killed local sources of information and reporting. It mentioned at least four Al Jazeera staff — Hamza Al Dahdouh, Ismail Al Ghoul, Rami Al Refee, and Hossam Shabat — as cases of murder by the IDF.
Israel, meanwhile, is facing increasing global condemnation over its actions in Gaza, which had started as a response to the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed around 1,200 people in Israel.
The war since is reported to have claimed over 50,000 Palestinian lives.
Starvation in Gaza prompts UN meet
Mass starvation at least since early this year is reported to have claimed over 110 lives so far – one of the reasons why a UN conference is now scheduled for July 28-30 in New York to possibly call for peace and an eventual two-state solution.
Israel and its largest backer, the US, are not attending the meet, which is being co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France.
They have also called back their representatives from talks for a ceasefire with Hamas, saying the group was making unreasonable demands about Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
