On Sunday, Israeli forces struck a tent encampment outside Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, killing 28-year-old reporter Anas Al Sharif, along with five other Al Jazeera journalists.
Al Sharif had become one of the most recognisable voices covering Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, documenting the destruction and humanitarian crisis since its earliest days.
His reports, shared with Al Jazeera and broadcast to his audience of 1.6 million, reached a global viewership in a besieged enclave where international journalists are barred from entry by Israeli authorities.
As online backlash mounted following the attack, TRT World spoke with Al Sharif’s mother, Fawzia Ibrahim Dawoud, who offered fragments of her final conversations with her son in the days leading up to his death.
Dawoud told TRT World that the 28-year-old father of three had long been receiving threats of assassination in the course of his work reporting from various areas of Gaza.
“He said to me: ‘Mum, I am in danger. Today or tomorrow, I might be martyred. And there’s nothing more beautiful than that,’” she said.
Shortly before his killing, Anas visited her mother to ask if she needed anything, to which she responded by saying “Nothing, except for God to protect you for me,” as she usually did when the question came up.
The two had had so many of their similar exchanges before and Anas’s answer was always the same: “God knows, mum. God knows.”
Anas refused to leave Gaza despite being offered multiple opportunities to evacuate, including by Qatari officials, her mother said.
“They told him to leave. Everyone told him: ‘Go, Anas.’ He refused to leave.”
Dawoud described her son as humble and compassionate, someone who was deeply rooted in his community.
“When he was coming back from work, he would see children. He would give them a ride, buy them a cup of water, give them something to drink, and then get down to take photos with them.”
Despite reassurances that his family was safe and eating, Al Sharif often went without food himself, ‘giving all he could find to his children,’ her mother recalled.
In the midst of the enduring chaos, the young father would also take moments to create a sense of normalcy for his four-year-old daughter, who Dawoud said was particularly attached to him.
“He’d bring her out of the tent to give her little treats, cut her hair,” Dawoud recalled. “Anas wouldn’t let anyone else do it. He adored her.”
Throughout his 22-month-long work, Anas’ reporting had become a lifeline for thousands of Palestinians and viewers across the region, who followed his reports on famine, displacement, and attacks on civilians.
He is one of more than 200 journalists killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the war began, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Several of those killed worked for Al Jazeera.
Israeli officials admitted to deliberately targeting the journalist immediately after the attack, citing alleged links to Hamas, without proof. The UN human rights agency called the targeted strike a “grave breach of international humanitarian law”.
The Israeli strike followed “repeated incitement and calls by multiple Israeli officials and spokespersons to target the fearless journalist Al Sharif and his colleagues,” according to a statement by Al Jazeera, which described Al Sharif as “one of Gaza's bravest journalists”.
When asked about what she would like the world to know, Fawzia Ibrahim Dawoud said she holds her head high.
“I am proud of my son, Anas Jamal Al Sharif. He made us hold our heads high. All his life, he walked the right path. He never harmed anyone. He was compassionate with people, with strangers on the street. He took care of his family,” she told TRT World.
“What I know is this: my son was a hero. The bravest among all the journalists in Gaza. Why shouldn’t I say it? Who was better than him?”
In his final message, written in April and published after his death, Anas Al Sharif said his death would be Israel’s way of silencing him and urged the world “not to forget Gaza.”
