Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was threatened by the Israeli military after a report in which he became emotional over Israel’s mass starvation campaign circulated online on Sunday, with the military’s spokesperson accusing him of shedding “crocodile tears.”
In a broadcast report on growing starvation in Gaza, al-Sharif teared up, having to gather his emotions as he witnessed a woman collapsing in the street due to hunger. Video of the report circulated on social media, with a voice in the video saying to him: “Keep going, Anas. You are our voice.”
Seemingly in response, Israeli military head spokesperson Avichay Adraee attacked al-Sharif and Palestinian commentator Saeed Ziad in a post on social media. He accused al-Sharif of shedding “crocodile tears” — even as Israel’s brutal starvation campaign has caused a spike in hunger-related casualties in recent days. Gaza officials reported on Sunday that, just in the previous day alone, 19 people had died of starvation in the Strip.
Al-Sharif pointed out that this is just the latest threat from Israel against journalists in Gaza.
“Silence or Death. The Israeli army is once again threatening journalists for exposing the truth from Gaza,” said al-Sharif on social media. “After I reported live on civilians collapsing from hunger, I was directly targeted with public incitement by the army’s spokesperson.”
“This is an attempt to silence us — and to cover up a genocide unfolding in real time,” he went on. “I call on international officials, human rights defenders, and global media to speak out and share this message.”
Adraee accused al-Sharif of being affiliated with Hamas, without evidence. Al-Sharif, like many Palestinians, has previously been censored by Meta, which shut down his Instagram account last year.
Israel has threatened al-Sharif before, who has been critical in reporting on conditions in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza, as the military has totally shut off the region from the rest of the Strip. Last year, Israel put al-Sharif on a list of six journalists in north Gaza that it accused of being affiliated with Hamas, without credible evidence.
That list included Hossam Shabat, a young journalist who Israel later killed in March, in a strike on his car. Shabat was a prominent reporter, well-known both among Palestinians in Gaza and Arabic- and English-speaking audiences across the world. He continually pled for international voices to speak out to end the genocide, up until the day Israel killed him.
As of April, Israel’s genocide has killed at least 232 journalists in Gaza, according to a count by Costs of War. This makes the genocide the “worst ever conflict” for journalists, with more journalists killed than in the U.S. Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including U.S. assaults in Cambodia and Laos), the Yugoslav Wars, the War in Afghanistan, and the ongoing Ukraine War, combined.
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