An Israeli military spokesperson asserted on Monday that the prominent Al Jazeera journalist it killed a day earlier was an active Hamas member who received a salary from the terror group, as the international outcry mounted over the Gaza City strike that also took the lives of five other reporters.
“Prior to the strike, we obtained current intelligence indicating that [Anas] al-Sharif was an active Hamas military wing operative at the time of his elimination. In addition, he received a salary from the Hamas terror group and terrorist supporters, Al-Jazeera, at the same time,” IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said.
The IDF said in a tweet that 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 salary records, prove he was a Hamas operative integrated into Al Jazeera,” it said, alongside a screenshot of relevant documents.
The military didn’t comment on the affiliation of the other five journalists who were killed in the strike on a tent near Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital along with Sharif.
Earlier Monday, the European Union joined the chorus of international condemnations of the strike, with the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas calling on Israel to provide “clear evidence” of its claim regarding the affiliation of the journalists it targeted.
In October, the IDF published documents seized in Gaza that it said proved that Sharif headed a rocket-launching squad and was a member of an elite Nukhba Force company in Hamas’s East Jabalia Battalion.
In his Monday post, Shoshani wrote that the documents the army published in October are “only a small, declassified portion of our intelligence on al-Sharif leading up to the strike.”
“This information was obtained during ground operations in Gaza at two separate locations,” he added.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings,” said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“At least 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Journalists and media workers must be respected, they must be protected, and they must be allowed to carry out their work freely, free from fear and free from harassment,” he added.
Countries and international organizations accused Israel of repeatedly targeting journalists after the Sunday strike. Al Jazeera said the attack killed its correspondents Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqea along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Noufal. Freelancer Mohammad al-Khaldi was also with the group and lost his life in the strike.
The IDF on Sunday confirmed carrying out a strike, saying Sharif was a “terrorist operating under the guise of a journalist.”
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.
A posthumous message, written in April in case of his death, was published on Sharif’s account on Monday morning, saying he had been silenced and urging people “not to forget Gaza.”
The Sunday strike came days after Israel approved a plan to fully conquer Gaza City and relocate southward around 1 million Palestinians currently staying there, drawing international outcry, including from its closest allies.
While Israel has repeatedly chastised international media for relying on information coming out of Hamas-controlled Gaza, it has barred journalists from entering the Strip since the start of the war, except on occasional, tightly controlled trips with the military.