Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
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- 2024 is deadliest year for journalists in CPJ history; almost 70% killed by Israel
- In record year, China, Israel, and Myanmar are world’s leading jailers of journalists
- Haiti, Israel most likely to let journalists’ murders go unpunished, CPJ 2024 impunity index shows
- No justice for journalists targeted by Israel despite strong evidence of war crime
- On Edge: What the US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom
- Forced to flee: Exiled journalists face unsafe passage and transnational repression
- Israel-Gaza war brings 2023 journalist killings to devastating high
- 2023 prison census: Jailed journalist numbers near record high; Israel imprisonments spike
Reporter Without Borders
OPC Condemns Killing of Six Journalists in Gaza and Demands Answers
NEW YORK, August 14, 2025 – The Overseas Press Club of America condemns the killing of six journalists over the weekend in Gaza. Four of the journalists were Al Jazeera staffers — correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal — and two were free-lance journalists, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khalid.
At the time of the killings, the journalists were involved in reporting for Al Jazeera or free-lance outlets. In a statement announcing that the one of the Al Jazeera correspondents, Al-Sharif, was killed, the Israeli military accused him of “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops.”
Yet Israeli military officials offered no evidence that al-Sharif was doing anything other than acting in his capacity as a journalist.
Al-Sharif is a well-known Al Jazeera reporter and has been reporting in Gaza since October 2023. In the past the Israeli government had alleged he was a member of Hamas, without offering supporting evidence.
According to the Committee to Project Journalists, this was the most deadly single attack against journalists since the start of the Israel-Gaza war. More than 190 journalists and media workers have been killed in the war from 2023 to the present, according to CPJ, which states that is more members of the press who were killed worldwide from 2020-2022.
The OPC stands with other press organizations demanding answers from the Israeli government and military about how and why these journalists were killed, and if they were targeted because they were members of the press.
Journalism is not a crime and the OPC will continue to champion the rights of journalists to do their jobs, including in conflict zones. No journalist should be punished, harassed, denied access, maimed or killed while simply doing their job.
We demand answers.