Condemnation of Israel's killing of Al Jazeera journalists
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Funerals have been held in Gaza City for five journalists from the news channel Al Jazeera who were killed in a targeted Israeli strike on Sunday night - including the prominent reporter Anas al-Sharif. The BBC understands before the war, he worked for a Hamas media team, but Israel accuses him of posing as a journalist, while serving as the head of a Hamas cell. We'll speak to war correspondent Jon Lee Anderson about the killings.
Also on the programme: Donald Trump says he's sending in the National Guard to regain control of the hell-scape that he says Washington DC has become; And we'll hear about the beachside solution that's being offered to inveterate snorers.
(Picture:Palestinians inspect the destroyed tent of the Al Jazeera team following an Israeli strike, outside the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, 11 August 2025. Credit: Photo by MOHAMMED SABER/EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios in central London. I'm Tim Franks. |
| 0:11.0 | One of the cliches of war is that the first casualty is truth. Today, that saying assumed a particular weight as funerals took place in Gaza for five journalists killed in an Israeli strike on their tent in Gaza city. |
| 0:26.6 | That these men work for Al Jazeera is not in dispute. |
| 0:30.7 | But as far as the Israel Defence Forces contends one of the men, the hugely prominent correspondent, Anas al-Sharif, |
| 0:39.0 | was not someone who was involved in an attempt to get to the truth to report from one of the most difficult and dangerous places |
| 0:44.1 | on earth. Rather, said the IDF, he was, in their words, a terrorist who posed as a journalist. |
| 0:51.7 | The Aldresera Network says there's zero evidence of that. He was, they say, |
| 0:56.0 | one of Gaza's bravest journalists boldly and courageously documenting the plight of Gaza. |
| 1:02.6 | All this matters immensely, not just because it's about the commission of a possible war crime, |
| 1:07.4 | the targeting of journalists, but also because as long as international journalists |
| 1:11.8 | are not allowed by Israel into Gaza, even greater concern has been expressed about getting information |
| 1:16.4 | out, particularly from the north of Gaza, from Gaza City, where Anas and his colleagues were reporting |
| 1:21.9 | from, and where the Israeli military says it's now going to step up, It's offensive. We'll try to weigh up the evidence |
| 1:28.9 | about it, Nash Sao Sharif, in a moment. First, though, we'll hear from Mohammed Mouad. He's, |
| 1:34.7 | excuse me, managing editor of Al Jazeera. He told Newsar what his response was to the Israeli |
| 1:40.5 | allegations that his colleague was an active member of Hamas. |
| 1:44.9 | These are unfounded allegations. |
| 1:47.5 | Anis is known for the world to be a prominent journalist and the only voice left in Gaza City. |
| 1:54.2 | Annes' work has appeared on BBC, ABC, NBC, CNN. |
| 1:58.2 | Not a single day passed without me getting a call from my colleagues in international news outlets asking me for the right to air the footage of Anas that he was able to capture from Jabalia after the bombardment of the area. |
| 2:18.3 | He has millions of followers on social media. |
| 2:21.7 | At a certain point, before joining Al Jazeera, he used to work for other international |
... |
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