Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera's reporter Anas al-Sharif and four of his colleagues were killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike near Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, according to Gaza officials and the network.

The network said the 28-year-old journalist had been previously threatened by Israel.

The Israeli military has claimed that al-Sharif headed a Hamas cell, an allegation Al Jazeera has rejected.

What happened in the strike?

Gaza health officials and Al Jazeera said the journalists were killed when an Israeli missile hit a tent near the hospital. An official at Shifa said two other people were also killed.

"Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif has been killed alongside four colleagues in a targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City," the Qatar-based broadcaster said.

It said he "was killed on Sunday after a tent for journalists outside the main gate of the hospital was hit."

The other Al Jazeera journalists killed were Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal.

Minutes before his death, al-Sharif, whose X account had more than 500,000 followers, posted on the platform that Israel had been intensely bombarding Gaza City for more than two hours.

Who was Anas al-Sharif?

Al-Sharif had worked as a prominent correspondent for Al Jazeera and was previously part of a photography team for the Reuters news agency that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

He was described by the network as "one of Gaza's bravest journalists" and a vital voice in reporting on the war. His coverage often included interviews with residents directly affected by the fighting, as well as footage from sites immediately after Israeli strikes.

A press freedom group and a United Nations expert had previously warned that al-Sharif's life was at risk due to his reporting from Gaza. UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan said last month that Israel's claims against him were unsubstantiated.

Al Jazeera said al-Sharif had left a social media message to be posted in the event of his death, saying he had "never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent."

What has Israel said?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said al-Sharif was "responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops," alleging he led a Hamas cell.

It cited intelligence and documents found in Gaza with a list of people linked to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant groups as evidence. 

Both Al Jazeera and al-Sharif had previously dismissed the accusations as baseless.

What have others said about al-Sharif's killing?

Germany has pressed Israel for a full and transparent explanation over the killing of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza.

"Israel is now expected, from our perspective, to explain itself in the most transparent and comprehensible manner possible," a spokesperson for the German Foreign Office told the German press agency dpa, while calling the killing of media workers "absolutely unacceptable" under international humanitarian law." 

The UN human rights office on Monday condemned the killing of at least five Palestinian journalists in Gaza, saying the actions by Israel's military represented a "grave breach of international humanitarian law."

"Israel must respect and protect all civilians, including journalists," it added.

The post on social media platform X was accompanied by a photograph showing flattened blue tents next to a bullet-ridden wall in Gaza City.

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate described al-Sharif's death as a "bloody crime" of assassination.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "appalled" by the killing, denying the Israeli military's claims that al-Sharif had ties to Hamas.

"Israel has a longstanding, documented pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof," the CPJ said Monday. 

In July, the CPJ had urged the international community to protect al-Sharif, saying in a statement that Israel had failed to provide any evidence to back up its allegations against him.

In the statement, the CPJ accused Israel of targeting him in a smear campaign.

"Israel's pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom," Sara Qudah, CPJ's director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Monday.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says the targeting of journalists in Gaza has created an "information blackout" in some areas.

Al Jazeera called the attack "a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza" and urged international accountability.

Al Jazeera remains blocked in Israel, where soldiers raided and shut its West Bank offices last year.

How many journalists have been killed in Gaza?

In July, RSF said more than 200 journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, accusing Israel of war crimes. A month earlier, the CPJ had said that 178 reporters had died in the war.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office has said that 238 journalists have been killed since the war started in October 2023.

According to the US Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs' Costs of War project, the conflict is the deadliest on record for journalists.  

The institute said the war had killed more reporters than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined.

Edited by: Karl Sexton