Anas al-Sharif, 28, feared he would be assassinated by Israel.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression were worried too.
The Al-Jazeera star correspondent, who had tirelessly documented the horrors in north Gaza, faced a deadly smear campaign from the Israeli military. They accused the Palestinian father-of-two of being a Hamas militant, which Sharif vehemently denied, and the CPJ said were completely unfounded accusations.
In fact just a few weeks ago, the CPJ said the campaign “represented an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif” and that the danger to his life was now acute.
UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan urged the world to act against the “blatant attempt to endanger his life”.
No one did.
On Sunday night, Israel deliberately bombed the tent he was sleeping in, killing Anas, four of his Al Jazeera colleagues, as well as a freelance journalist in a neighbouring tent and a passerby. All within the complex of a hospital compound.
The military celebrated, claiming this state-sponsored assassination was a successful hit on a Hamas operative. The CPJ called it “murder plain and simple” and said it is part of a pattern of accusing Palestinian journalists without providing any credible proof.
And it is simple.
Israeli strikes have already killed more than 200 Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza since October 2023.
The more Palestinian journalists like Anas in Gaza that Israel kills, the fewer people there are to report on one of the most unprecedented humanitarian catastrophes of our time.
That renders the world blind.
Since the start of this war Israel has also barred international correspondents like me from entering and reporting in Gaza, except in controlled military embeds.
And so, newsrooms rely entirely on our courageous Palestinian colleagues to be the eyes on what is going on inside the besieged, bombarded, blasted strip. They are the eyes for the world.
I do not see any reason to bar international journalists from entering Gaza to also report. I, like hundreds of other correspondents, covered the devastating 2012 and 2014 wars on Gaza from inside Gaza. Back then, Israel permitted us to enter via land crossing points.
I have repeatedly asked the Israeli authorities why they will not let us in, and have yet to receive a clear explanation.
It begs the question: What is it we are not supposed to see?
The slaughter of Palestinian journalists, and the blockade on international reporters, means that you, me, all of us sitting in the comfort of our living rooms, know less about what is going on in Gaza.
In Gaza, where Israel’s bombardment and war with Hamas militants has killed over 61,000 people, according to local officials; where famine is unfolding, according to the UN-backed global hunger monitor; where more than 90 per cent of the 2.3 million population have been forced to flee their homes multiple times, trapped within this kill box.
It means we know less about conditions in Gaza, where at least 50 hostages and captives seized by Hamas militants during its deadly 7 October raids on southern Israel are being held.
The deliberate targeting and killing of journalists constitutes war crimes under international humanitarian law.
If the killing of the Al-Jazeera journalists - and freelancer Mohammed al Khalidi– goes unanswered; if there is no truly impartial investigations and no accountability into the killings of all of the journalists and no justice for their families, it sets a dangerous precedent for our brave colleagues who are still (barely) alive in Gaza and under threat.
And it sets a dangerous precedent for journalists everywhere. And the pursuit of truth.
It signals that it is acceptable for a western ally - of the UK and the USA - to engage in the killing of reporters with impunity.
That makes us all less safe.
Right now, Gaza is the most dangerous place on earth to be a journalist.
To cite Amnesty: “No conflict in modern history has seen a higher number of journalists killed than Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
For the sake of the Palestinian journalists still inside Gaza.
For the sake of all of those suffering inside Gaza right now.
For the sake of the future of journalism.
For the future of truth itself, we must demand answers and justice.
