Israel killed five journalists during an airstrike in Gaza, news outlet Al Jazeera reported. 

Anas al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera reporter, was killed in a tent alongside four colleagues and two bystanders, the Qatari-owned network said. He shared a video of Israel’s “relentless bombardment” of Gaza shortly before he died.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the strike, claiming that al-Sharif, who is Palestinian, headed a Hamas terrorist cell and led “advanced rocket attacks” against Israel. 

Al Jazeera has repeatedly denied allegations about al-Sharif’s links to Hamas, and the United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of expression, Irene Khan, said last month that the claims were unsubstantiated. 

“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,” Al Sharif’s final message, posted on X, reads. “So that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing.”

Israel has barred foreign journalists from reporting in Gaza, but Al Jazeera has relied on local reporters to cover the war. Israel has accused the network of acting as a “mouthpiece” for Hamas and has killed other Al Jazeera journalists.

American nongovernmental organization the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack as an example of Israel labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence. Some 186 journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, at least 178 of them by Israel, according to the CPJ.

“Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted,” CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said in a statement.

Israel is escalating its assault in Gaza despite losing international support over the humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday approved a plan to take control of Gaza City, and said Sunday he expected to complete a new offensive “fairly quickly.”