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Tel Aviv and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CJP) can agree on one thing: The prominent Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif was killed alongside his team by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike on Sunday. However, while the IDF claims that he doubled as a Hamas cell leader, the US-based nonprofit organization views that accusation as part of Israel’s disturbing pattern of smearing journalists covering the war in Gaza.

As for Al-Sharif, he covered the attack that led to his death in a series of dramatic social media posts.

“The occupation is now openly threatening a full-scale invasion of Gaza. For 22 months, the city has been bleeding under relentless bombardment from land, sea, and air. Tens of thousands have been killed, and hundreds of thousands wounded,” he wrote in one post on Sunday night.

“If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop,” he added. “Please share this message and tag everyone who has the power to help end this massacre. Silence is complicity.”

Two hours later, somebody with access to his account published one more post that Al-Sharif had composed earlier this year.

“This is my will and my final message,” it begins. “If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”

By that time, the IDF had already announced that he had been killed.

“STRUCK: Hamas terrorist Anas Al-Sharif, who posed as an Al Jazeera journalist,” it stated on X. “Al-Sharif was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”

The post includes images that the IDF backs up its claims.

“Intelligence and documents from Gaza, including rosters, terrorist training lists and salary records, prove he was a Hamas operative integrated into Al Jazeera,” it stated. “A press badge isn’t a shield for terrorism.”

However, CJP blasted Israel for the attack, which not only killed Al-Sharif but also four of his colleagues, and for leveling what it says are unsubstantiated allegations against the Al Jazeera reporter and other journalists who have been killed in Gaza.

“Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted. Those responsible for these killings must be held accountable.”

The group had warned a few weeks ago that Al-Sharif was in danger.

“We are deeply alarmed by the repeated threats made by Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee against Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Anas Al-Sharif and call on the international community to protect him,” Qudah said last month, adding that Israel’s “unfounded accusations represent an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif.”

Even before the current conflict began, the group had issued a report calling out Tel Aviv for having deployed the same tactic for years.

At the time, CJP stated that Israel’s military has killed 20 journalists in a little over two decades without anybody ever having been held to account.

On Sunday, the group noted that, since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, 186 journalists have been killed, nearly all of them Palestinians.

Following the killing of the Al Jazeera team, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) called on the US to stop supplying Tel Aviv with weapons.

“The Israeli military has killed more than 200 journalists and media workers,” she said. “The latest strike killed 5 journalists including a prominent Al Jazeera journalist. The US must stop providing weapons for this genocide.”