August 27, 2025 – Dr. Susanna Kokkonen
Many of us around the world have been observing that journalists too have died because of the conflict in Gaza. International media has devoted a lot of attention to these deaths. It is particularly important for us to understand how this system works. We hear that many journalists are dying in Israeli air strikes in Gaza. At the same time we hear that Israel is not letting journalists into Gaza at all.
The latter statement -that journalists are not being allowed into Gaza- is true. The accusation is that Israel is not allowing them in because of all the things it wants to hide from the world press. If this is the case, then by extension there are things Israel wants to hide from the wider public around the world.
The other possibility is that Gaza is an active war zone.
The IDF still discovers new Hamas tunnels and fighting is still going on. Hamas is still hiding hostages somewhere in the tunnel system. It would be extremely dangerous to allow foreign journalists in. The first hypothetical question is who would take responsibility for their security?
But regarding the death of the journalists, who are these people? If Israel lets no foreign journalists in, these are local helpers of foreign media outlets. There are writers and camera operators among them. There are tragic accidents and deaths. Israel has regretted those too. But some of the cases contain more than meets the eye.
Anas al-Sharif
Take as an example a journalist affiliated with the Arabic and international network Al Jazeera. The young man Anas al-Sharif indeed died a while ago. He was a local journalist. Now he died and the outcry around the world was terrible. Naturally, any death is tragic. And yet there remains a question about the identity of this young man.
Already in 2024 the IDF shared documents showing him to be a member of Hamas. According to the documents, he had joined Hamas’ military unit already in 2013 and he was on the payroll of the organization. Several photos of him posing with Hamas leadership exist. Al-Sharif was wounded in April 2017. Yet he stayed in Hamas’ service. His name was on the list of Hamas’ elite Nukba fighters.
The question is if he died because he was a journalist or because he was a member of the Hamas elite unit? Whilst -as I said- any death of a person is regrettable, there still is a vast difference in how we should perceive the matter.
Media Conflict
In Europe there was a terrible outcry against Israel because of the death of this young man. Many media outlets were unable to accept the IDF’s story and did not want to hear the facts. Initially the media published the information that Israel had killed this journalist. Afterwards they were not interested in publishing details about his double identity.
It is vitally important for us to understand that at the same time as there is a military conflict going on, there is also a media conflict around us.
We need to find out what the facts are before we reply to anyone. But once we have those, we need to use our voice.
Will the truth win? I believe it will, but until then it is up to us to speak up.
The Holocaust Remembrance Association exists to remember, reconcile, and take a stand against antisemitism in all its forms.
