Al Jazeera corrects journalist death toll in Israeli strike to four

Al Jazeera corrected its report, stating four, not five, of its journalists were killed in an Israeli strike. Photo / Getty Images

Al Jazeera has corrected the number of its journalists killed in a recent Israeli strike to four, saying that one of the five dead it initially reported killed was a freelancer.

The Qatar-based broadcaster had originally reported its correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa were killed in the Israeli attack on Sunday.

But in a corrected report on its English-language website, Al Jazeera clarified that Moamen Aliwa worked as a freelance cameraman, adding that a sixth journalist slain in the attack, Mohammed al-Khalidi, was also a freelancer.

“An earlier version of this story referred to Israel killing five Al Jazeera staff. The number of Al Jazeera journalists Israel killed was four,” Al Jazeera’s statement read.

The attack on the journalists’ tent in Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory provoked international outrage and condemnation from journalists’ groups.

The Israeli military confirmed that it had carried out the attack on Al-Sharif, one of the most recognisable faces on the channel, claiming that he was a “terrorist” who “posed as a journalist”.

Al Jazeera condemned the killings and dismissed accusations against Al-Sharif saying the Israeli strike followed “repeated incitement and calls by multiple Israeli officials and spokespersons to target the fearless journalist Anas Al Sharif and his colleagues”.

With Gaza sealed off, many media groups around the world, including AFP, depend on photo, video and text coverage of the conflict provided by local Palestinian reporters.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began, including several Al Jazeera journalists.

- Agence France-Presse