We, the undersigned human rights organizations, strongly condemn the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation on the evening of Sunday, August 10, 2025. This was the premeditated assassination of the Al Jazeera news team in the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of journalist Anas Al-Sharif and his colleagues Mohammed Qreiqa, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Al-Aiwa, and Mohammed Noufal, and wounded journalist Mohammed Sobeh, following a direct airstrike targeting the journalists’ tent set up in front of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The public acknowledgment by the Israeli occupation of this targeting, coupled with openly boasting about the act after months of pursuing and issuing explicit threats against Anas Al-Sharif, constitutes irrefutable evidence of the premeditated nature of these crimes. It confirms that the elimination of journalists in Gaza is part of a deliberate policy aimed at silencing the truth, erasing witnesses to the massive violations committed against civilians, and concealing war crimes from the international public.
According to credible local and international reports, more than 220 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 by the occupation forces, making this conflict the deadliest war for journalists in modern history. These facts place the occupation under international criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity, in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
We express our deep outrage and anger at this criminal act and recall that targeting journalists in the course of their work constitutes a flagrant violation of Article 79 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as all international norms protecting journalists in conflict zones.
Accordingly, we demand:
The urgent opening of an independent international investigation, under the auspices of the United Nations, into the assassination of the Al Jazeera team and all killings of journalists in Gaza;
The prosecution before the International Criminal Court of the leaders of the Israeli occupation and the military officials involved in these crimes;
The immediate imposition of international sanctions against the occupying state, including a total arms embargo, in order to put an end to its crimes against journalists and civilians;
The establishment of effective and immediate international protection for journalists and media institutions operating in Gaza. We warn that the continued silence of the international community in the face of these repeated crimes amounts to tacit complicity, encourages the continuation of massacres, and undermines both press freedom and the fundamental right of peoples to access the truth.
Signatory organizations:
Voix Libre Organization for the Defense of Human Rights – Paris
Association of Victims of Torture – Geneva
Alkarama for Human Rights – Geneva
Al-Shehab Center for Human Rights – London
Al-Tadamon for Human Rights Avocats Sans Frontières International
JHR – Justice for Human Rights
Foundation Human Rights Monitor – London
CEDAR for Human Rights – Lebanon
Tawassol for Human Rights – The Hague
Council for Egyptians’ Rights – Geneva
Arab Observatory for Press Freedom
Najda Foundation