GAZA / NEW YORK – Anas Al-Sharif, a 28-year-old Palestinian news reporter based in Gaza for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news outlet, claims he is facing a direct threat to his life from Israel. He has described the intensified online attacks by Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as “a precursor to my assassination.”
Al Jazeera and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have both expressed immediate and deep alarm over Adraee’s campaign, which repeatedly accuses Al-Sharif of being a terrorist. “Avichay Adraee’s campaign is not only a media threat or an image destruction; it is a real-life threat,” Al-Sharif was quoted as saying by the CPJ.
Al-Sharif, who is married with at least one child, a daughter, has continued to report from the ground in Gaza despite losing some members of his extended family to Israeli airstrikes. He believes these accusations are a direct result of his reporting. “All of this is happening because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip harms them and damages their image in the world,” Al-Sharif stated, accusing Israel of wanting to “morally assassinate” him.
The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, has alleged that Al-Sharif is a Hamas member, particularly since the journalist became emotional on air this month while reporting on the dire issue of starvation in Gaza. In videos released on July 23 and 24—around the time Israel and the U.S. withdrew their representatives from truce talks with Hamas—Adraee described Al-Sharif’s reporting on starving Palestinians as “a fabricated drama starring Anas Al-Sharif, who sheds crocodile tears.” In earlier videos the same month, Adraee had labeled Al-Sharif’s and Al Jazeera’s work as “intellectual terrorism,” responding to Al-Sharif’s plea on X for a ceasefire. In a July 24 video, Adraee specifically accused Al-Sharif of being a member of Al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, since 2013.
CPJ regional director Sara Qudah stated that the latest accusations by the IDF “represent an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif” and called on the international community to protect him. Al Jazeera, in a statement on Friday, July 25, 2025, denounced these “relentless efforts, which have consistently incited against its staff since the beginning of its coverage of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.”
Israel has already banned Al Jazeera from operating within Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank. The CPJ highlights that foreign journalists have been largely denied free access to Gaza for months, placing a greater burden on local reporters. The organization further alleges that Israel has deliberately killed local sources of information and reporting, citing at least four Al Jazeera staff members—Hamza Al Dahdouh, Ismail Al Ghoul, Rami Al Refee, and Hossam Shabat—as cases of “murder by the IDF.”
Global news organizations, including the BBC, AFP, AP, and Reuters, recently issued a joint statement expressing “desperate concern” for journalists in Gaza amidst warnings of mass starvation.
The accusations against Al-Sharif come as Israel faces increasing global condemnation for its actions in Gaza, which began in response to the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel. The ongoing conflict has reportedly claimed over 50,000 Palestinian lives.
The severe starvation crisis in Gaza, which has reportedly claimed over 110 lives since early this year, is a major concern. This humanitarian catastrophe is one of the reasons a UN conference is scheduled for July 28-30 in New York, aiming to address the situation and potentially call for peace and an eventual two-state solution. Israel and its primary backer, the U.S., are not attending this conference, having also recalled their representatives from ceasefire talks with Hamas due to what they termed “unreasonable demands” from the group regarding Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
Palestinian Journalist Anas Al-Sharif Alleges Israeli Threat To Life Amidst Online Attacks
