The last journalists in Gaza are pre-writing their obituaries

“I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.” 

Those were among Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif’s last words, published posthumously on Aug. 10 after a targeted Israeli strike on a media tent outside Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital killed al-Sharif. al-Sharif pre-wrote his obituary, like many other journalists in Gaza, knowing that there are few left who can report on the situation after Israel continues a blockade against food aid and international media entering Gaza without supervision.

Per Al Jazeera, Israel’s military confirmed the attack was deliberately meant to kill al-Sharif, who was targeted by a smear campaign launched by the Israeli government — a common tactic even before the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. The strike also killed fellow Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal.

“Israel is murdering the messengers,” Sara Qudah, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ regional director, said in a recent story covering the murder of al-Sharif and his colleagues. 

Over the past 22 months, Israel has mounted and escalated a devastating campaign against not just the Palestinian people, killing over 61,000 people according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, but also media workers in Palestine. Palestinian journalists have said the press vest has marked them as targets.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Drop Site News’ editor for the Middle East and Northern Africa, says many journalists in Gaza work under the assumption they’ll probably be killed.

“Many of them are in their 20s, and they’re writing these letters knowing that they’re going to be killed and it’s going to be read after their death,” he said. “Hossam [Shabat] and Anas [al-Sharif], they both said, ‘Don’t forget Gaza. Don’t let the world look away.’ And that’s how we try and honor them — to continue their work, continuing to cover Gaza, to do what they were doing with other Palestinian journalists.”

A number of national and international journalism institutions have issued statements strongly condemning Israel’s actions. Among them are Al Jazeera, NewsGuild and the National Writers Union, Reporters Without Borders, and National Press Club. 

In late July, The Associated Press, AFP, BBC News, and Reuters issued a joint letter urging Israeli authorities to let food aid enter the country. “For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza,” the organizations wrote. “They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.” 

The New York Times later added its support for the call, with international editor Philip Pan saying the paper “has supported appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court for safe and increased access to Gaza, has evacuated a number of Gazan journalists and their families and will continue to push for journalists to be allowed to work securely and without fear or hesitation in Gaza.”

Yet many of the cadre of newsrooms whose leadership, in Feb. 2024, said they “stand united with Palestinian journalists in their call for safety, protection, and the freedom to report” have not commented on this latest attack on Palestinian press freedom. Many have actively censored coverage that would improve those conditions. 

Early reporting from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times — all signatories of the Feb. 2024 letter — skewed supportive of Israel, per an analysis from The Intercept.

The L.A. Times barred 38 signatories of a Nov. 2023 letter calling for accurate coverage of Israeli military attacks and condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian journalists from reporting on Palestine and Israel for 90 days. 

And the U.S. paper of record, the New York Times, has notably covered al-Sharif, and Palestinians, differently than they might other people. The newsroom called the charges by the Russian state against American reporter Evan Gershkovich explicitly “fabricated” while also parroting the Israeli state’s claim that al-Sharif was a “Hamas fighter.” Senior leadership gave the go-ahead to publish an later-debunked exposé, co-authored by a writer with no prior reporting experience, that further spread unverified claims.

In several cases, Palestinian freelancers have lost income and work after groups like HonestReporting, a nonprofit that says it seeks to identify anti-Israel bias, have framed working journalists as terrorists. CNN has severed ties with at least two freelancers in Gaza, Hassan Eslaiah and Abdel Qader Sabbah, one of the few cameramen still based in the north Gaza Strip, on the basis of these allegations. 

“We know these [legacy news outlets] can show outrage,” Kouddous said. “So why this double standard? It’s ludicrous, it’s shameful, and it’s actually deadly.” 

Kouddous has worked with journalists in Palestine for years. He was the Fault Lines correspondent for the Gaza documentary The Night Won’t End, which profiled three families in Gaza and explored U.S. accountability in Israeli violence on Gaza, along with The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, about the 2022 killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. He’s seen the Israeli military shift to clearly stating — rather than denying — its intent to kill Palestinian journalists, and the continued double standard around coverage. 

“Can you imagine if five New York Times journalists were killed in an airstrike, one of them openly assassinated, and the response by Al Jazeera is to say, ‘Here’s what to know about the New York Times?” he said, referring to the Times’ morning briefing and coverage after al-Sharif’s assassination. “No one would even dream of doing it.” 

Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), has been calling for boycott, divestment, and unsubscribes from the New York Times, and has organized several protests at the New York Times office building over the past 22 months. In response to the campaign, Nicole Taylor, a spokesperson for the Times, called the “Israel-Hamas war one of the most divisive global events in recent history” in an emailed statement. 

“The Israel-Hamas war is one of the most divisive global events in recent history,” Nicole Taylor, a Times spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “While we support the right of groups and individuals to express their point of view, we will not let advocacy groups sway us from covering the conflict fully and fairly. Nor do we condone acts of vandalism.” 

Still, WAWOG is continuing its efforts: The collective worked with the Palestinian Youth Movement to organize a week of action in the wake of al-Sharif’s assassination to pressure 17 major newsrooms, including CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, and the L.A. Times, to cover Israel’s starvation of Gaza and investigate the murder of Gazan journalists. 

“With each headline as a brick, the Fourth Estate has built a fortress of apathy. The difference between a ‘murdered’ child and one ‘found dead’ is the difference between outrage and voyeuristic intrigue,” the groups wrote in a statement on Aug. 12. “When the reader encounters a Palestinian only amongst the rubble or behind a rifle, they’ve been primed by your linguistic violence to see our death as inevitable.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists says over 190 media workers in Gaza have been killed since Oct. 2023. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the United Nations both estimate that number is higher — closer to 240 journalists killed, while Al Jazeera places it at 269 journalists as of Aug. 15.

“In any other place in the world, a journalist in times of war is seen as a witness, not a target, and killing a journalist is a war crime,” Palestinian journalist Shaimaa Eid wrote in an elegy to al-Sharif and fellow journalists for Prism. “But in Gaza, the journalist has become a direct target. Carrying a camera here is like wearing a mark on your forehead that reads, ‘Kill me.’”

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8/18/25: This story was updated to clarify Kouddous’s role in The Night Won’t End and The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh.

James Salanga is the co-director of The Objective and the podcast producer for The Sick Times.

Gabe Schneider edited this piece.