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BY THE Hind Rajab Foundation Anas Al Sharif and his murdered colleagues (Photo credits mediapart) By any measure, Anas Al-Sharif should still be alive.
On the morning of 10 August 2025, the 28-year-old Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent was doing what he had done since the first days of the Gaza onslaught—reporting from the frontlines, armed only with a camera and a press vest. Outside the main gate of Al Shifa Hospital, in one of the last corners of northern Gaza where journalists could still work, Al-Sharif was filing footage of bombardments that shook the streets around him. Moments later, a missile struck the tent where he and his colleagues were sheltering. Seven people died instantly. Among them: Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa—four Al Jazeera journalists who, like Al-Sharif, had refused to stop documenting the Genocide. Mohammed Al-Khaldi, also a journalist who worked for Sahat Media Platform, and Saad Jundiya, a Palestinian civilian who happened to be present in the scene at the time of attack were also killed.
The Israeli military would later admit the strike was deliberate. Their justification? The same recycled accusation used in killing over 220 journalists since October 2023: that the victims were “terrorists in press vests.” For the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), this was not just another tragedy in a long war on the press. This was a clear-cut criminal act—a war crime and part of a broader genocidal campaign—and it demanded a direct, targeted legal response. A Joint Case to The Hague The new Article 15 Communication to the International Criminal Court was filed jointly by HRF and PCHR. While HRF focused its investigation on the chain of command and operational decisions that led to Al-Sharif’s killing, PCHR brought to the case its meticulous documentation of the other Al Jazeera journalists killed in Gaza—cases that fit the same pattern of premeditation and deliberate targeting. Following the Chain of Command When HRF investigators began reconstructing the strike, they followed the trail from the moment a drone camera locked onto Al-Sharif’s position to the instant the missile hit.
At the political summit stands Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister who presided over—and encouraged—a strategy to eliminate journalists as part of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The Smear Before the Strike If the missile was the killing blow, the campaign to delegitimize Anas Al-Sharif had begun long before. For nearly two years, Avichay Adraee, Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson, used social media to accuse Al-Sharif of being a Hamas operative. He mocked the journalist’s emotional reporting, called his on-camera tears “crocodile tears,” and framed his work as propaganda. A War on Witnesses The killings of Anas Al-Sharif and his colleagues are not isolated incidents. Together, HRF and PCHR’s investigations reveal a systematic policy targeting Al Jazeera journalists:
In the Gaza war, local journalists are not just chroniclers—they are the last line of independent witness to a conflict foreign reporters are barred from entering. Silencing them is not collateral damage; it is strategic. From Evidence to Action The joint submission to the ICC does not mince words. It accuses the identified military and political figures of:
And it makes three urgent demands to the ICC Prosecutor:
Hunting the Perpetrators This is not symbolic litigation. HRF is tracking these individuals, identifying their roles, and preparing to pursue them in any jurisdiction willing to act. The case is being built not only for The Hague, but also for prosecution in national courts that recognize universal jurisdiction for war crimes and genocide. The Message to The ICC The evidence is there. The legal foundation is unshakable. The jurisdiction is established beyond question. What remains is for the International Criminal Court to move past statements of “grave concern” and take the decisive step that justice demands: act. |
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