Media outlets around the world jumped on the story of a journalist who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, but managed to elide the fact that he celebrated the Hamas October 7, 2023, massacre of over 1200 Israelis and was seemingly close with the late Hamas terrorist leader, Yahya Sinwar.
Anas al-Sharif was one of five Al Jazeera journalists killed in the airstrike on Sunday, according to the Washington Post.
Israel Defense Forces reported that al-Sharif had been the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, adding, “Intelligence and documents from Gaza, including rosters, terrorist training lists and salary records, prove he was a Hamas operative integrated into Al Jazeera.”
????STRUCK: Hamas terrorist Anas Al-Sharif, who posed as an Al Jazeera journalist
Al-Sharif was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops.
Intelligence and documents from Gaza, including rosters, terrorist training lists and… pic.twitter.com/ypFaEYDHse— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 10, 2025
On the very day that Hamas and fellow Palestinian civilians slaughtered more than 1200 Israelis, raping women and brutalizing infants, al-Sharif posted on Telegram: “9 hours and the heroes are still roaming the country killing and capturing … God, God, how great you are ❤️❤️❤️”
Al Jazeera “journalist” Anas Al Sharif, who was just eliminated, reported on October 7th: pic.twitter.com/JRHgBFGuw6
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 10, 2025
Photos show Sinwar embracing al-Sharif and the journalist taking selfies with him and other Hamas leaders:
Yahya Sinwar and Anas Al Sharif https://t.co/VdBXQFTlhm pic.twitter.com/rsO8xVaqwQ
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 11, 2025
They say Anas Al-Sharif was a journalist.
Here he is with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
He was a terrorist. Don’t let them fool you. pic.twitter.com/E2NV5RzMaK
— Vivid.???????? (@VividProwess) August 10, 2025
But media outlets had their own story to tell: Reuters called al-Sharif a “prominent Al Jazeera journalist,” quoting the news outlet that described him as “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists.”
CNN quoted Al Jazeera English’s director of news, Salah Negm, saying the airstrike was “killing the messenger and trying to eliminate any eyewitness to atrocities and genocide.”
AP huffed, “Observers have called this the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern times,” then quoted al-Sharif writing before he died, “I never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.”
The BBC called al-Sharif a “prominent reporter.” The Guardian echoed that al-Sharif was a “prominent Al Jazeera journalist,” and gave a more lengthy version of the al-Sharif post that stated he had “lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.”
The New York Times referred to al-Sharif as a “well-known correspondent for Al Jazeera,” and also quoted the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claiming that Israel had caused “61,000 deaths.”