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Israel has admitted bombing a tent housing journalists outside the entrance to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, an attack that killed seven journalists, including 4 from Al Jazeera.

The IDF said the attack targeted Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, 28, well known internationally for his reporting in Gaza since the outbreak of hostilities on 7 October 2023.

The airstrike came just minutes after Al-Sharif called out the international community’s silence over the attrocities in Gaza. “If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop,” the 28-year-old posted on social media.

The Al Jazeera network condemned the killings. “This attack comes amid the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has seen the relentless slaughter of civilians, forced starvation, and the obliteration of entire communities,” a statement from the network on Monday said.

“The order to assassinate Anas Al Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza.”

“Al Jazeera emphasises that immunity for perpetrators and the lack of accountability embolden Israel’s actions and encourage further oppression against witnesses to the truth,” the network said.

Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud, who was a block away when the air strike hit said the journalists were killed “because of their relentless reporting on the starvation and the famine and the malnutrition” suffered by Palestinians in Gaza, “because they’re bringing the truth of this crime to everyone,”

IDF admits airstrike was deliberate, says the assassination was justified

In a statement, the IDF said it had targeted  Al-Sharif, claiming the journalist was the head of a Hamas cell and was “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and Israeli troops.” The IDF claimed to have documents  providing “unequivocal proof” of his involvement with HamasA

The claim waa hotly disputed by Al Jazeera and a number of other parties. “His entire daily routine was standing in front of a camera from morning to evening,” Muhammed Shehada, an analyst at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, told Al Jazeera.

Last month, after Israeli army spokesperson Avichai Adraee accused Al-Sharif of being a member of Hamas’s military wing, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Irene Khan, said she was “deeply alarmed by repeated threats and accusations of the Israeli army” against Al-Sharif.

“Fears for Al-Sharif’s safety are well-founded as there is growing evidence that journalists in Gaza have been targeted and killed by the Israeli army on the basis of unsubstantiated claims that they were Hamas terrorists,” Khan said.

At the time the besieged journalist, pictured here with his daughter Sham, and son,Salah,  issued a statement denying the claim. “I reaffirm: I, Anas Al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground — as it is, without bias,” he said. “At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat.”

The U.S. National Press Club called for a “thorough and transparent” investigation into the journalist’s death.

“The killing of a journalist while working to inform the public is a loss felt far beyond one newsroom,” National Press Club president Mike Balsamo said in a statement.

“Journalists must be able to work without being targeted or killed. All parties in conflict zones must honor their obligations under international law to protect reporters and ensure they can carry out their work safely.” said.

Australian Senator David Shoebridge said the assassination of the Palestinian journalists comes as Israel continues to pban foreign journalists from entering Gaza.

“Now the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza has been murdered by Israel with the killing of Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal,” Shoebridge said Monday.

“Every day they try to hide the truth of the genocide they are committing,” he said.

Over 200 journalists and scores of their family members have been killed during the near two-year Israeli military onslaught on Gaza. Al Sharif’s home was targeted in a previosu airstrike which left his father dead, and his home destroyed.