Al Jazeera Journalist Anas al-Sharif and Five Others Killed in Gaza Strike on August 10, 2025
- Annemeet Hasidi-van Der Leij
- Aug 11
- 8 min read
On the night of August 10, 2025, six individuals posing as journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, were killed near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City by an Israeli military airstrike. According to the IDF, those killed were Hamas terrorists posing as members of the media.
Media Activity and Hamas Links The IDF stated that Anas al-Sharif was a member of Hamas since 2013 and served as the head of a terrorist cell responsible for facilitating rocket attacks. He also worked as a correspondent for Al Jazeera in the northern Gaza Strip during the ongoing conflict and before. According to Israeli military sources, documents found in Gaza linked him to Hamas, including training records, salary documents, and phone directories.
Graphic revealing the Al Jazeera journalists' involvement as a terrorist
Anas al-Sharif was reportedly involved in disseminating messages from Hamas operatives in Gaza to those in Judea and Samaria via al-Aqsa TV, and previously worked with Reuters, where he was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team in 2024 for coverage of the war.
In 2024 Anas al-Sharif was one of the four recipients of the Human Rights Defender Awards of Amnesty International Australia.
He had a significant online presence, with tens of thousands of followers across X (Twitter), Telegram, and Instagram. His work included coverage of Hamas military events, photographing senior Hamas figures, and documenting weapons exhibitions and public marches.
IDF Statements and Al-Sharif’s Death
The IDF announced that the strike was conducted using precise munitions after steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians. It further stated that documents obtained showed al-Sharif’s involvement in terrorist activity and his integration into the Al Jazeera network.
Shortly before his death, al-Sharif posted on social media that intense bombing had been ongoing for two hours. A pre-scheduled message released posthumously on his X account stated: "...I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent."
Reactions and Allegations
Hamas described the killings as an assassination and claimed that it could mark the beginning of a broader Israeli operation in Gaza City. The group also accused Israel of attacking hospitals and schools near the site of the strike.
Al Jazeera denied Israeli claims that its journalists were linked to terrorist activity and described the allegations as fabricated. In previous statements, the UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan and other press freedom groups had warned that al-Sharif’s life was in danger. In 2024, Israel had publicly named al-Sharif among six journalists it claimed were affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) later stated that Israel had not provided public evidence to support its claims and raised concerns about the labeling of journalists as militants.
Who was Anas Jamal al-Sharif?
Anas Jamal al-Sharif. A photographer and journalist who was particularly active in the northern Gaza Strip. He was from Jabalia. On his old X account (former Twitter), he stated that he was born on September 3, 1996, and studied at the Faculty of Communication at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. Al-Sharif began his work in the media field as a volunteer on the Al-Shamal Online website (Al-Mantajah, November 25, 2023). In parallel with his work on the website, he operated Facebook pages, and today his X account has 48.6 thousand followers, his Telegram channel has 31.3 thousand subscribers, and his Instagram account has 204 thousand followers.
Some of his work as a journalist
Among the things he has documented in the past: Photographing senior Hamas figures including Yahya al-Sinwar, Fathi Hamad, a member of the Hamas political bureau, and Abu Anas al-Ghandour, commander of the Hamas political bureau.
In addition, he documented a weapons exhibition held by the Hamas military wing in the northern Gaza Strip (July 1, 2023).
(ITIC)
Spontaneous demonstrations in Beit Lahia
On March 25, 2025, Gazans held spontaneous popular demonstrations in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip to protest the continuation of the war and Hamas rule. In the following two days, additional demonstrations took place in Beit Lahia and in other areas of the Gaza Strip.
Some Hamas-affiliated media outlets and journalists, such as Anas al-Sharif, and Gazan correspondent Hassan Aslih, reported on the first demonstration in Beit Lahia and described it as a protest against the war and the ongoing Israeli “aggression,” but did not report the anti-Hamas sentiment (al-Aqsa TV Telegram channel, March 25, 2025; Safa Telegram channel, March 25, 2025; Anas al-Sharif’s X account, March 25, 2025).
The trend continued in the following days in most Hamas affiliated media outlets both inside the Strip and outside of it, such as Qatar’s Al Jazeera. One example was the repetition of statements made by the Hamas - affiliated heads of clans in Beit Lahia and in the central Gaza Strip refugee camps, claiming that the demonstrations were a call to the free world to increase pressure on the “Zionist enemy” to stop the “bloodbath” and open the crossings to bring in aid.
Indonesian Hospital in Gaza
In November 2023 Hamas and Hamas – affiliated journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, claimed that Israel launched a strike that destroyed "several vital facilities inside the Indonesian hospital, which made it unable to provide any medical services" and set "fire to a number of schools and homes around the hospital."
Gazan journalist Anas al-Sharif uploaded in November 2023 a video when he walked around with his camera in the Indonesian Hospital’s ER in the northern Gaza.
The video clearly showed that the hospital was well lit. That invalidated the hospital’s claims and recent photos purporting to show the hospital was in complete darkness, causing it to stop providing medical services (QudsN X account, November 16, 2023).
Contrary to reports, the IDF did not strike the Indonesian Hospital in Jabaliya and did not damage any essential equipment. Following reports regarding the evacuation of the hospital, messages were sent to reiterate to officials in the health authorities that there is no need to evacuate the hospital.
How does Hamas operate the media?
Hamas operates affiliated media outlets in the Gaza Strip, along with an array of prominent correspondents whose professional activities are used to convey messages and reports to the residents and others in the Gaza Strip and abroad.
Some, such as Hassan Aslih, Ashraf Abu Amra, Anas al-Sharif work independently and others, such as Islam Badr and Hani al-Sha’er work for foreign media outlets as well as for Hamas.
During the war in Gaza they benefit from exclusive coverage in combat zones, such as the northern Gaza Strip. For example, Anas al-Sharif and Islam Badr, who come from Jabaliya, are the only media personnel who report to the local and international media on events in the area.
Thus they help Hamas by disseminating the information it wants to show the public in the Gaza Strip and beyond, including the image of governance, lively commercial activity and a large presence of residents remaining in the region after they had been asked to evacuate to the south of the Gaza Strip.
On this photo Anas al-Sharif can be seen to pose with Islam Badr. Islam Badr is a correspondent from Jabalia, 35 years old, who has been working at Hamas’ al-Aqsa channel since 2007 as an announcer, program presenter and field reporter. From 2007, he was responsible for the news, and since May 2022, has been director of the channel’s news department. He holds an MA in journalism and media communications (Islam Badr’s LinkedIn account).
He was previously involved in using al-Aqsa TV to convey messages from Hamas terrorist operatives in the Gaza Strip to terrorist operatives in Judea and Samaria. The operatives detained by the Israeli Security Agency at the beginning of 2019 had been instructed by their handlers in the Gaza Strip to carry out terrorist attacks in Judea, Samaria and Israel.
In addition to al-Aqsa TV, during the war he has been acting as a correspondent for the Qatari al-Arabi TV channel. He also regularly updates his X account with developments, daily life and the fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, with an emphasis on the Jabalia area.
Several experts from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a U.S.-based think tank, provided commentary on the broader issue of media-terrorist overlap:
“Terrorists regularly pose as journalists or first responders to evade targeting on the battlefield. While working for the media arm of a terrorist organization still makes you a terrorist, what we have here appears to be more classic terrorist operatives playing journalist dress-up. The irresponsibility here lies with the media and pundits who rushed out misleading headlines.” — Richard Goldberg, Senior Advisor of the The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)
“Palestinian regimes — whether that of Hamas or Abbas — do not foster free discourse or reporting. The putative ‘journalists’ working under them must go along to get along, and it should be no surprise that some cross the line and use their professional mantle as cover for terrorism. Western observers should ask themselves why Gaza, a small place with such a high concentration of media professionals, has been so strikingly lacking in investigative exposes about, say, Hamas’s seizure of international aid and redirection of humanitarian funding to its very obvious network of terror tunnels and rockets arsenals.” — Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network
“Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations have long used journalists as a tool to get a message across to the Israeli public and, at times, to the international community. In 2018, during the March of Return, Gaza journalists routinely embedded with Palestinian terrorists launching incendiary-laden balloons and infiltrating the Israeli border. Sadly, this relationship has gone unnoticed by many, particularly those in the West, who fail to recognize the strong link between terrorism and these so-called journalists that dates back many years.” —Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal
The incident on August 10, 2025 has drawn international attention amid the ongoing war in Gaza, raising renewed questions about the connection between terrorist organisations and journalists in conflict zones.
Sources: - https://www.fdd.org/about-fdd/
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