Israel said Anas al-Sharif, one of the media company’s correspondents killed in the attack, was a ‘terrorist posing as a journalist’
Israel’s military said it targeted and killed a Hamas cell leader posing as an Al Jazeera journalist in an airstrike on Gaza City on Sunday, a claim condemned by the Qatari broadcaster.
Anas al-Sharif was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who died in a strike on a tent near Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said there were seven people killed in the strike.
“Anas al-Sharif served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation and was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (Israel Defence Forces) troops,” the Israeli military said in a statement, citing intelligence and documents found in Gaza as evidence.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, said the killing may signal the start of an Israeli offensive.
