Late Sunday evening, Israel’s military targeted Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza correspondents Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh and three others, killing them in a drone strike against their media tent at the gate of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The slain journalists had spent the past 22 months documenting the ongoing conflict and its impact on their community.
Al-Sharif, 28, and Qreiqeh, 33, are both survived by their wives and a baby boy and a girl.
Qreiqeh, who was an only child, had lost his mother in Gaza in March 2024, when Israeli forces stormed al-Shifa Hospital. He searched for his mother for two weeks, eventually finding her decomposing body on the stairs of the facility.
Witnesses said she was shot and killed in cold blood.
Despite the personal grief and excruciating circumstances, both al-Sharif and Qreiqeh continued to document Israel’s war in Gaza, which is increasingly being deemed a genocide by critics worldwide.
Al-Sharif’s last tweet on X, posted minutes before he was killed, warned that Israel’s latest plan to invade Gaza risked muzzling Palestinian voices in the besieged enclave.
“If this madness doesn’t end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased – and history will remember you as a silent witness to a genocide that you chose not to stop,” he posted.
Sacrifice and courage
Like all Palestinians in Gaza, al-Sharif and Qreiqeh were born and raised under Israeli occupation. For most of their lives, Israel has imposed a full land, sea and air blockade over the enclave, effectively turning it into what human rights groups describe as an open-air prison.
The siege affected every aspect of Palestinian life – livelihoods, travel and family connections and compelled al-Sharif and Qreiqeh to dedicate their lives to telling the world about their people’s struggle under Israel’s brutal occupation.
Al-Sharif studied media studies at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza and was known for his reporting on the Israeli military campaign that began on October 7, 2023, documenting its humanitarian and civilian impacts.
Yaser al-Banna, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza, said that when Israel ordered the entire population of 2.2 million Palestinians to flee south – an act that likely amounts to a war crime – al-Sharif stayed in the north to document the events and actions of the Israeli military.
“His life was in danger from Israeli strikes [at the time in the north]. But he still went to the scene of every Israeli blast to uncover Israel’s crime, just five minutes after it happened,” al-Banna told Al Jazeera.
Al-Banna added that he had formed a strong professional relationship with Qreiqeh since last year.
At the time, al-Banna was in southern Gaza and Qreiqeh was in the north, and they often traded contacts and exchanged information to better cover the humanitarian impact of Israel’s genocidal war.
“He never waited a moment to help me or to help anybody,” al-Banna said of Qreiqeh. “My impression of Qreiqeh was that he was always patient and calm.”
Colleagues and friends
In October 2024, Israel published unsubstantiated claims that al-Sharif was among six Palestinian journalists affiliated with a Hamas cell, which Al Jazeera has repeatedly denied.
Human rights groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), note that Israel often brands Palestinian journalists as “terrorists” without providing proof.
From then on, al-Sharif knew his life was in danger.
“All of this is happening because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip harms them and damages their image in the world. They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally,” he told CPJ in July.
The Israeli threats made some in Gaza hesitant to give al-Sharif interviews out of fear that Israel could kill him and everyone around him at any moment.
Still, most commended his bravery and continued to support him as he reported from the eye of the storm. Al-Banna added that Qreiqeh continued to work with al-Sharif, despite the risks.
They knew that they could both die at any time from Israeli bombardment.
“The relationship between them was very strong,” al-Banna said, acknowledging that most people knew al-Sharif would likely be targeted.
“Journalists in Gaza became closer to al-Sharif. We accepted that we would all live together and then die together,” al-Banna added.
Carrying the torch
Speaking from Al Jazeera’s studio in Doha, Qatar, their colleague Tamer Almisshal revealed that both al-Sharif and Qreiqeh were mentally and physically exhausted leading up to their deaths.
They hardly turned off their phones because Israel was killing so many people, forcing them to report on the extermination of their people every waking moment, he explained.
“These are journalists. These are role models,” Almisshal said, holding back tears.
“I’m making a pledge, after the death of Anas: We will continue to spread their message responsibly and with full professionalism,” he added.
This is a sentiment shared by journalists across Gaza who are bearing the burden of reporting on Israel’s genocide alone.
Since October 7, Israel has banned the entry of international reporters and killed nearly 270 journalists and media workers in Gaza.
Saleh Jafar, 28, is a Palestinian journalist in Gaza who is vowing to keep the memory of his colleagues alive. He said Israel is targeting the media to stop the world from seeing its crimes in Gaza.
“They can’t silence the rest of us. There are a million more [voices in Gaza] like Anas, and there are a million more [voices] like Mohammed.
“Our voices and footage will continue to be [broadcast] in the face of [Israeli] terror and threats.”