Gaza: Online tributes pour in for Al Jazeera journalists assassinated by Israel

Israel's targeted killing of several Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza has sparked an outpouring of grief and fury across social media platforms, with  thousands calling for justice and the protection for Palestinian journalists.

Prominent correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh were among those killed in the strike on a press tent near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City late on Sunday. The strike also claimed the lives of Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khalidi. 

On X, users shared heartfelt tributes to Palestinian journalists, honouring their courage and mourning their loss.

Many reflected on the extraordinary risks they faced while reporting under relentless bombing, blockade, displacement and hunger amid Israel's ongoing assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, which leading legal and genocide experts, as well as rights organisations describe as genocide.

“In this world, journalism is a bigger crime than openly committing genocide,"  one user wrote. 

"The grief from martyrdom of the [journalists] is so heavy."

Comedian Sammy Obeid posted: "The only reason anyone kills journalists is because they’re telling the truth."

Many online tributes focused on Sharif, dubbed  “the voice of Gaza”, one of the most recognisable faces in the Strip.

He had refused to leave northern Gaza and continued reporting in grave conditions, even after Israel's forced evacuation orders.

Users described him as "an eye carrying the truth through the fire" and that he “bled for two years watching his people being genocided”.

UK independent MP Jeremy Corbyn slammed the killing of the journalists  as "sickening beyond words".

Israel's "deliberate and relentless killing of Palestinian journalists... is a desperate attempt to silence the truth about Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity," he added.

Several people highlighted that the killings came just days after Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to occupy the Gaza Strip, beginning with an operation that aims to seize Gaza City and forcibly clear its approximately one million Palestinian residents.

"They did so because they're now liquidating Gaza City, and want to silence the remaining witnesses,"  said British columnist Owen Jones on X.

Palestinian journalist and human rights advocate Maha Hussaini stated that the murders came soon after Israel announced it would allow foreign reporters into Gaza after nearly two years of barring them.

“The Israeli occupation is entering a new stage of shifting the genocide narrative,” she wrote.

"By erasing their [Palestinian journalists'] voices and replacing them with voices it can control, Israel is literally trying to rewrite reality."

The outpouring of grief extended beyond Israel's latest attack on journalists to the scores of Palestinian journalists who have been killed before.

Many users recalled veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen abu Akleh, who was killed in the occupied West Bank in 2022.

Others re-shared stories of journalists Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour, who were killed earlier this year.

'The West simply shrugged'

Western media outlets and journalists also came under intense criticism from social media users, who accused them of enabling the killings through one-sided reporting skewed in favour of Israel. 

"The blood of Anas al-Sharif and other slain journalists is on the hands of Western media figures who have justified Israel’s crimes while ignoring, or excusing, the killing and intimidation of Palestinian journalists," said one user.

Independent journalist Barry Malone summed up the anger: “A whole generation of reporters wiped out while many of their colleagues in the West simply shrugged.”

One user called on international journalists to go on a strike to "force your bosses to pressure the Israeli government to allow entry to Gaza and protect Palestinian journalists".

Others called on the international community to take action and tagged the accounts of international courts. 

Gaza-based journalist Hind Khoudary wrote: "I will not speak to foreign media about the killing of Palestinian journalists... To you, we are just a headline - a tragedy to consume, not colleagues to defend.

"We are being hunted and killed in Gaza while you watch in silence. For two years, your fellow journalists here have been slaughtered. What did you do? Nothing," she continued.

According to Gaza’s government media office, Israel has killed 238 Palestinian journalists since the start of the war in October 2023.

Rights groups and press freedom advocates have described the war in Gaza as the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history.