The IDF has defended the airstrike that killed Al Jazeera reporter and alleged terrorist Anas al-Sharif on Sunday, claiming that several of the five journalists killed in the strike had also been members of terror groups.
In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the IDF justified its targeting of Sharif and the five other journalists who were killed in a tent near Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital last week, with one military source telling the outlet that the strike targeted several other “incriminated terrorists,” or verified members of terror groups, in addition to Sharif.
The IDF statement on Wednesday said: “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 IDF has not elaborated on how many of the five other journalists killed were terrorists, nor provided evidence to support the accusation.
Al Jazeera has said its correspondents Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, were killed in the strike, as well as freelancers Moamen Aliwa and Mohammad al-Khaldi.
Israel claimed to have targeted Sharif in particular for his alleged collaboration with Hamas, with the IDF referring to him as “the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops” and sharing several documents which the military claim to be proof that Sharif was receiving a salary from the terror group.
On Monday the IDF 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, which IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said represented only a small portion of the military’s intelligence on Sharif.
The journalists’ deaths prompted international outcry. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the attack, pointing out that the deliberate targeting of journalists constitutes a war crime under international law.
To get more Israel news, click here to sign up for our free Israel Briefing newsletter.