FUNERALS were held for five Al Jazeera journalists today after they were killed by a targeted Israeli strike in Gaza — sparking global condemnation.

Among them was one of Gaza’s most prominent reporters Anas al-Sharif, who wrote of “its wronged and innocent children” shortly before he was killed while sheltering in a tent near a hospital on Sunday night.

The Al Jazeera news agency called the 28-year-old “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists” as it condemned the “targeted assassination” as a “desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”

Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal were named as the other journalists killed in the strike near al-Shifa Hospital, east of Gaza City. 

Today a sixth journalist, Mohammad Al-Khaidi, was reported to have died from the same attack. A seventh person also died and three more journalists were wounded in the attack, said Reporters Without Borders.

Mr Sharif was a household name in the strip with millions of followers online.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza City attended the funerals which saw the journalists’ bodies carried from al-Shifa Hospital to Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in central Gaza.

Colleagues, friends, and relatives embraced in grief, while a man lifted a “press” flak jacket high above the crowd.

Condemnation of the killings rang out from media organisations, humanitarian groups and foreign governments with the UN’s Human Rights Office accusing Israel of a “grave breach of international humanitarian law,” calling on the country to “respect and protect all civilians, including journalists.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that 186 journalists have now been killed since the start of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in October 2023 — the highest number of journalist deaths since the organisation started gathering data in 1992.

The UN’s office has a higher estimate of at least 242 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza.

Israel has mostly barred international media from entering Gaza since 2023, forcing foreign press to rely on Palestinian journalists, local reporters and humanitarian workers to provide details of what is going on inside the territory. 

Mr Sharif, who is is survived by his wife and two children, Salah and Sham, was part of a Reuters news agency team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2024 in the category of breaking news photography for their coverage of the Gaza conflict.

The Al Jazeera television network was shut in the country by Israel in May last year, alleging links to Hamas.

Amnesty International said that it “strongly condemns Israel’s deliberate killing of journalists in an air strike on a media tent in occupied Gaza City.

“Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues have been the eyes and voices of Gaza. Starved and exhausted, they continued to bravely report from the front lines, despite death threats and immense grief.

“No conflict in modern history has seen a higher number of journalists killed than Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“There must be an independent and impartial investigation into the killings of Palestinian journalists, with justice and full reparation for their families. States must urgently act to bring an end to Israel’s genocide now.”

In a post, labelled as Mr Sharif’s “last will and testament,” the journalist wrote: “If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”

The post, which was published after his death, adds: “I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent.”

The Israeli military had accused Mr Sharif of being a “Hamas terrorist,” which Al Jazeera has denied.

Stop the War Coalition posted a clip of Foreign Secretary David Lammy stating there were no journalists in Gaza last November on X.

It wrote: “Will David Lammy condemn as a war crime the murder of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues by Israel, or does he still believe there ‘are no journalists in Gaza?’”

A spokeswoman for Momentum said: “The targeting of journalists, civilians and aid workers is all part of a genocidal assault against the people of Gaza, which the UK is deeply complicit in via the sale of weapons and provision of military intelligence.”

Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal said: “Israel’s deliberate murder of five Al Jazeera reporters is just the latest instance of its systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists.

“Israel imprisons and slaughters Palestinian journalists and bars international journalists access to Palestine because it does not want the world to know the truth of their genocidal violence against the Palestinian people or question the falsehoods they use to justify it.

“British media organisations like the BBC must call this what it is, a blatant war crime.”

Australia has become the latest country to announce that it will recognise a Palestinian state with its Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying it would do so in September.

He said his government would formally announce the move when the United Nations general assembly (UNGA) meets in New York.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” he said.

The country follows Canada, France and Britain, which are also preparing to formally recognise Palestine at the meeting next month.

Most UN member states already recognise Palestine as a state.