"There was no place to hide'

Witnesses recount the ‘horrific’ moment an Israeli missile claimed the lives of six journalists reporting from Gaza City

- NEDAL HAMDOUNA

Sheltering in tents on the grounds of the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City, the Al Jazeera journalists had just bid each other good night.

Another day of reporting on the violence, starvation and brutality in their besieged homeland had ground to an end. Fifteen minutes later, Israeli missiles tore through the sky and eviscerated the tent.

Anas al-Sharif, 28, one of the news channel’s most prominent voices in Gaza, was killed alongside reporter Mohammed Qreiqeh and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. A sixth journalist, a freelancer, was killed nearby.

Sharif had been intentionally targeted by the Israelis, who accused him of being the head of a Hamas terror cell but offered no credible evidence to back up their claim. There was no explanation for the killing of the other men alongside him.

Saed, a Palestinian journalist staying in a nearby tent on the same site, was thrown to the ground by the deafening explosion when the strike hit. “I lost consciousness,” he told The Independent. “Suddenly, my eyes went back to the area, and I saw that the journalists’ tent had been targeted.”

Amer, 31, also in the same compound, came rushing out. He described seeing one journalist, injured in the legs and back, screaming for help. Sharif - who had faced numerous death threats in the run-up to the strike - was lying dead on the ground behind him. His colleague Mohammed Qreiqeh was alive, just about, but on fire. Those around him scrambled to try to extinguish the flames, Amer continued.