"It is the duty of the world to see and witness what we are documenting and what we are reporting."

"It is the duty of the world to see and witness what we are documenting and what we are reporting."

Anas al-Sharif was assassinated by Israel one year ago following a monthslong campaign of threats, intimidation, and public incitement by the Israeli military targeting him and other journalists in Gaza. He was killed alongside five other journalists in an airstrike on a media tent outside Al-Shifa hospital: Mohammed Qraiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, Mohammed Noufal, and Mohammed Al-Khalidi. Israel publicly proclaimed it had "struck the terrorist Anas al-Sharif, who posed as a journalist."

At just 28 years old, he had become one of the most recognizable faces of the war, an Al Jazeera correspondent who remained in northern Gaza from the very beginning, reporting almost every day on airstrikes, massacres, famine, and displacement.

In a recording sent to Drop Site in September 2024, al-Sharif spoke about sleeping in hospitals, streets, and cars, being displaced more than 20 times and going days without a single meal while he was reporting. The Israeli military threatened him personally, ordering him to stop reporting from northern Gaza. After he refused, they targeted his family home, killing his father.

"Maybe the world won't act, maybe the world won't help us — but there might be a motive to stop this war. Every time I document a massacre or a bombing, I think that maybe through this image the war could stop."

Drop Site contributor Abdel Qader Sabbah, a friend and colleague who reported on al-Sharif's death, had been with him just two days prior. He said that in their last conversation, al-Sharif told him: "We understand these are our last days." Earlier that year, on March 24, 2024, Drop Site contributor Hossam Shabat was assassinated by Israel. Like al-Sharif, Shabat knew he would likely be killed and wrote a letter to be published after his death. Shabat and al-Sharif were among six Al Jazeera journalists who were placed on a hit list by the Israeli military in October 2024.

Israel has now killed nearly 300 journalists across Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank since 2023 — more journalists than any government in modern history — with its military enabled, backed, armed and funded by the United States. No one has been held accountable for their deaths.