Only Terrorists Kill Journalists

From ISIS to Israel’s War on Truth

Aug 12, 2025

I know what it means to lose a journalist to an assassin’s bullet. It happened to my family.

My cousin, Naji al Jerf, was a Syrian journalist and filmmaker who exposed ISIS atrocities, mass graves, executions, the machinery of fear they ran on. For that, ISIS hunted him down and shot him in broad daylight in Turkey.

The message was unmistakable: Tell the truth and we will kill you.

That’s how terrorists rule. Whether they hide behind a black mask or a state’s flag, their motive is the same: erase the witnesses, control the story, bury the evidence.

Only terrorists kill journalists.

This week, that same logic took the lives of an entire Al Jazeera crew in Gaza.

The Assassination of Gaza’s Last Voices

On a single day, Israel killed Anas al-Sharif and four of his colleagues in a marked media tent outside Shifa Hospital.

Anas was one of Gaza’s most prominent reporters. He was reporting a war while surviving it, documenting every bombing, massacre, displacement, and moment of resilience.

For nearly two years, he stayed in northern Gaza when others had to flee, despite daily threats from the Israeli military.

They called him directly, pinged his location, told him to stop reporting or leave. Tactics ISIS used with journalists in Syria.

Last year, after one of those threats, an Israeli strike killed his 65-year-old father. In October, Israel put Anas and five other Al Jazeera journalists on a public hit list. One by one, they’ve been killed.

Anas knew the risk. Barely an hour before his death, he warned on social media:

“If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins. Its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased, and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop. Silence is complicity.”

Then the strike came and Israel admitted responsibility.

A Calculated Campaign

In Gaza, 238 journalists have been killed in less than two years, thats more than in any modern conflict, including Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Ukraine.

Many died with their families in targeted strikes. Others were burned alive. Some were hit twice, once to injure, then again to kill.

This is not random it’s calculated terrorism by a rogue state acting with impunity.

The playbook is always the same:

Deny responsibility: call it “collateral damage.”
Deflect: say they were “in the wrong place.”
Defame: label them militants after killing them.
Publish public hit lists.
Boast openly about the assassinations.

The brazenness grows because there are no consequences.

Complicity in Silence

Western media too often repeat the Israeli military’s script. Headlines cast doubt on whether Palestinian reporters are “real journalists.” Official statements call for “investigations” into killings after the killers bragged about it in public.

Imagine livestreaming the destruction of your own community, day after day, knowing the threats are real, and then, after your death, having your legitimacy debated.

It’s disgusting and western media outlets should ashamed of their abhorrent racist behavior.

This Is Bigger Than Gaza

Killing journalists isn’t just an attack on Palestinians. It’s an attack on the infrastructure of truth itself. When states can murder reporters in full view of the world, and face nothing but empty statements, they set a precedent for every government on earth.

The moment we accept that, we accept a world where facts are decided by those with the most firepower, not the most evidence. Where atrocities can be erased simply by erasing those who witness them.

This is not new for Israel, they have been doing this for decades issuing public threats and enacting their crimes in front of cameras.

We, the world, are letting them do it.

The Cost of Looking Away

My cousin Naji died because he believed that getting the truth out could save lives. Anas and his colleagues died for the same reason. They knew that without them, the stories of Gaza’s people would vanish into propaganda and official denials.

And they were right. Every time a journalist is silenced, our understanding narrows. We know less. We see less. And those committing the crimes gain more power.

Silence Is Surrender

We can’t bring back Naji. We can’t bring back Anas or the 238 others. But we can refuse to be silent. We can refuse to let their work be buried with them.

We must:

Demand accountability from governments: sanctions, prosecutions, and an end to impunity for states that target journalists.
Support independent journalism: fund it, protect it, defend it.
Share and preserve their work so it cannot be erased.

Silence is surrender.

If we accept a world where governments can kill journalists without consequence, we are accepting the end of truth.

That’s the world Naji and Anas died fighting against.

And it’s the world we must not allow to win.

Speak up. Boycott. Organize. Protest.

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Image: AI Generated

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