The funerals of the five employees of the Qatari channel Al Jazeera, killed overnight by an Israeli attack in Gaza, including a reporter well known to its viewers, took place on Monday in the Palestinian territory devastated by 22 months of war.

As the Israeli government shows determination to implement its new plan of operation in the besieged Palestinian territory, Al Jazeera reported the death of five of its employees in "a targeted Israeli attack" on a tent in Gaza City, outside al-Shifa hospital.

The five men are Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa. A freelance journalist, Mohammed Al-Khaldi, who occasionally worked with local media, was also killed in the Israeli attack, according to the hospital director.

Anas al-Sharif, 28, was one of the most well-known faces among the correspondents covering the conflict on a daily basis.

The Israeli army said it targeted him, calling him a "terrorist" who "was posing as a journalist."

The press rights organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has "strongly and angrily condemned the assassination of Anas al-Sharif, claimed by the Israeli army, adding that he was "the voice of the suffering imposed by Israel on the Palestinians of Gaza."

Dozens of men, some in tears and sometimes supporting each other, carried the bodies of the victims to the ground Monday morning at the Sheikh Redouan cemetery in Gaza City, according to an AFP videographer.

At the site of the attack, a white wall riddled with splinters, soiled mattresses on the floor and fans twisted by the flames bore witness to the attack on the plastic tent, of which almost nothing remained except its metal structure.

"This is my will"

Al Jazeera condemned "a desperate attempt to silence voices speaking out against the Israeli occupation." According to the network, 10 of its correspondents have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of its offensive launched in retaliation for the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

According to RSF, nearly 200 journalists have been killed since the start of the war.

In his last social media posts on Sunday evening, moments before his death, Anas al-Sharif reported "intense" bombardments and released a short video showing bombardments and lights in the starry night sky over Gaza City.

A posthumous text, written in April in the event of his death, was published on his account Monday morning, in which he calls for "not forgetting Gaza." "This is my testament and my last message. If these words reach you, know that Israel succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice," the long message states in the preamble.

The Israeli military claims that Anas al-Sharif "was the leader of a terrorist cell within the Hamas terrorist organization and was responsible for preparing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and Israeli troops."

She posted a selfie of the journalist posing with Hamas leaders on her social media, as well as a table allegedly showing the names of members of the Palestinian Islamist movement, where the journalist's name appears with a corresponding salary for the years 2013 and 2017.

In July, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) accused the Israeli military of waging a "smear campaign" against the journalist by portraying him in online posts as a member of Hamas.

Rare embeds

Al Jazeera has been banned from broadcasting in Israel and its local offices closed in May 2024.

The international press has not been allowed to operate freely in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. Only a select few media outlets have rarely entered the area embedded with the Israeli army, their reporting subject to strict military censorship.

The international press relies on local journalists and correspondents, who have paid a heavy price in the conflict.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he had ordered the military to allow more international media outlets to operate under his control in Gaza.

Mr. Netanyahu, who has justified Israel's new plan to conquer Gaza City, is facing intense pressure both within Israel over the fate of the 49 hostages held by Hamas and abroad to silence the guns as more than two million Palestinians face "widespread famine," according to the UN.

The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Israeli reprisals in Gaza have already left 61,430 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.