DOHA: Al Jazeera condemned the Wednesday killing of two of its journalists in an Israeli strike on Gaza, calling the deaths a “cold-blooded assassination” in a statement.
The Qatar-based news outlet said its Arabic channel correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul and cameraman Rami Al Rifi were “targeted by Israeli occupation forces” during their coverage of Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp.
“This latest attack on Al Jazeera journalists is part of a systematic targeting campaign against the network’s journalists and their families since October 2023,” Al Jazeera added.
Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, Al Jazeera has aired continuous on-the-ground reporting on the effects of Israel’s campaign.
The network’s office in Gaza has already been bombed in the conflict and two other correspondents killed.
Al Jazeera said Ghoul and Rifi’s killings showed “the urgent need for immediate legal action against the occupation forces.”
The channel said it would “pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes and stands in unwavering solidarity with all journalists in Gaza.”
In a statement, Hamas condemned the killings as a “heinous crime” which it said was “aimed at terrorizing and silencing” Palestinian journalists as they reported “the ongoing genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip for nearly ten months.”
Al Jazeera has been the focus of months of criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
Last month, an Israeli court confirmed it had extended a ban on the network, which broadcasts in Arabic and English, initially placed on Al Jazeera in early May.
The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the killings and said the incident and others like it “must be fully and transparently investigated and there must be accountability.”
In January, Israel said an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an air strike in Gaza were “terror operatives.”
The following month, it accused another journalist with the channel who was wounded in a separate strike of being a “deputy company commander” with Hamas.
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.
Its bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh, was wounded in an Israeli strike in December that killed the network’s cameraman.
His wife, two of their children and a grandson were killed in the October bombardment of central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.
His eldest son was the Al Jazeera staff journalist killed in January when a strike targeted a car in Rafah.
Al Jazeera condemns ‘assassination’ of its two journalists in Israeli strikes
https://arab.news/85ebb
Al Jazeera condemns ‘assassination’ of its two journalists in Israeli strikes
- Attack part of systematic targeting campaign against network’s journalists and their families since October, it says
Pioneering Asharq Al-Awsat journalist Mohammed al-Shafei dies at 74
- Egyptian was known for his fearless coverage of terrorist, extremist groups
- One of handful of reporters to interview Taliban leader Mullah Omar in 1970s
LONDON: Mohammed al-Shafei, one of Asharq Al-Awsat’s most prominent journalists, has died at the age of 74 after a 40-year career tackling some of the region’s thorniest issues.
Born in Egypt in 1951, al-Shafei earned a bachelor’s degree from Cairo University in 1974 before moving to the UK, where he studied journalism and translation at the University of Westminster and the School of Oriental and African Studies.
He began his journalism career at London-based Arabic papers Al-Muslimoon and Al-Arab — both of which are published by Saudi Research & Publishing Co. which also owns Arab News — before joining Al-Zahira after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Al-Shafei joined Asharq Al-Awsat in 1991 and spent 15 years on the sports desk before shifting to reporting on terrorism. He went on to pioneer Arab press coverage in the field, writing about all aspects of it, including its ideologies and ties to states like Iran.
His colleagues knew him for his calm demeanor, humility and meticulous approach, marked by precise documentation, deep analysis and avoidance of sensationalism.
Al-Shafei ventured fearlessly into terrorist strongholds, meeting senior terrorist leaders and commanders. In the 1970s he was one of only a handful of journalists to interview Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, and conducted exclusive interviews with senior figures within Al-Qaeda.
He also tracked post-Al-Qaeda groups like Daesh, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Boko Haram, offering pioneering analysis of Sunni-Shiite extremism and how cultural contexts shaped movements across Asia and Africa.
During the war on Al-Qaeda, he visited US bases in Afghanistan, embedded with international forces, and filed investigative reports from active battlefields — rare feats in Arab journalism at the time.
He interviewed Osama bin Laden’s son, highlighting a humanitarian angle while maintaining objectivity, and was among the few Arab journalists to report from Guantanamo, where his interviews with Al-Qaeda detainees shed light on the group’s operations.
Al-Shafei married a Turkish woman in London in the late 1970s, with whom he had a son and daughter. He was still working just hours before he died in London on Dec. 31.
