The IDF said Wednesday that it had taken “many measures” to mitigate harm to civilians in a strike on Sunday that killed prominent Al Jazeera reporter and Hamas operative Anas al-Sharif, and alleged that several of the other journalists killed in the same strike were also members of terror groups.
Al Jazeera said the strike killed its correspondents Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal. Freelancers Moamen Aliwa and Mohammad al-Khaldi were also with the group and were killed in the strike.
Israel has accused Sharif of being an active Hamas terrorist, sharing a number of documents it says show that he was receiving a salary from the terror group and was an active Hamas operative who headed a terrorist cell in charge of rocket-launching.
The strike on the group of journalists led to sharp international anger and condemnation from many Western governments.
In response to a query by The Times of Israel as to why the IDF chose to target Sharif when he was with five other journalists in a tent near Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the military issued a response on Wednesday defending the strike, while a military source claimed that several of the other journalists were also members of terror groups.
“On Sunday, the IDF struck a terrorist from the Hamas terror organization in the northern Gaza Strip. Prior to the strike, many measures were taken to reduce the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence information,” the IDF said.
“Terror organizations in the Strip systematically violate international law, cruelly exploiting civilian institutions and the population as human shields for terror activities,” the army added.
In addition, a military source told The Times of Israel that the strike targeted several other “incriminated terrorists,” meaning verified members of terror groups, in addition to Sharif.
The source did not elaborate on how many or which of the five other journalists were also allegedly terror operatives.
On Monday, the IDF asserted that Sharif was “the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”
The military said that “intelligence and documents from Gaza, including rosters, terrorist training lists and salary records, prove he was a Hamas operative integrated into Al Jazeera,” sharing a screenshot of the relevant documents.
The documents, published by the IDF in October 2024, showed that Sharif joined Hamas’s military wing on December 3, 2013, where he served as a commander of a rocket-launching squad in northern Gaza. He was certified as the team commander on January 1, 2019, according to the documents.
On April 7, 2017, Sharif was wounded in his eye and suffered hearing loss during Hamas training, though he continued to remain in the organization on a $200 monthly salary, according to a 2023 document published by the military. A separate, undated document showed that Sharif’s name was on the internal phone registry of the elite Nukhba Force company in Hamas’s East Jabalia Battalion. A codename for Sharif is also listed in the directory.
IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Monday 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.”
The strike on the journalists’ tent sparked a wave of criticism and calls for an in-depth investigation, including from the UN, the EU and a number of European nations.
The United States on Tuesday declined to criticize Israel over the strike, with State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce telling reporters only that she would “refer you to Israel for information regarding al-Sharif.”
She voiced respect for journalists who cover war zones but said that Hamas members have been “embedded in society, including posing as journalists.”
“It is a horrible thing to do for those of you who are committed to finding information for people to be in that situation,” she said.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began, including several Al Jazeera journalists.
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.
Agencies contributed to this report.