Gazan citizen journalist Saleh Aljafarawi, whose coverage of the war in Gaza reached millions on social media, was cornered by armed men in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City and shot seven times on Sunday – while wearing a clearly marked press vest.
The full circumstances of his killing remain unverified, but a senior source in Gaza’s Ministry of Interior told Al Jazeera Arabic that the clashes in Gaza City involved “an armed militia affiliated with the [Israeli] occupation.”
Aljafarawi had been the target of an Israeli smear campaign in 2023, when state-aligned social media accounts and commentators falsely labeled him a “crisis actor.” The Associated Press later debunked the claim, concluding: “This isn’t the first time video footage has been misrepresented to spread misinformation and make false accusations of ‘crisis actors’ during the Israel-Hamas war.”
Just weeks ago, Haaretz reported that Palestinian activists and followers of Aljafarawi feared the IDF was ‘painting a target’ on him, after military sources floated unsubstantiated claims that he was a Hamas operative.
According to The New Arab, Israeli authorities had placed Aljafarawi on a ‘red notice’ list, the same designation used for other Palestinian journalists later targeted and killed, including Anas Al Sharif.
More than 270 media workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war began in October 2023, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history.
Aljafarawi’s killing came just days after the first phase of the Trump-brokered peace plan took effect, reigniting global doubts about what the ceasefire actually means for Gaza, and for the Palestinian struggle at large.
A representative from No Music for Genocide, the decentralized collective behind the global cultural boycott campaign protesting what a United Nations commission and other organizations have called Israel’s genocide in Gaza, told Rolling Stone (US) on Friday commenting on the peace plan:
“… our urgency remains unchanged. The so-called peace plan, imposed on Palestinians under the threat of continued genocide, offers no credible path toward a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the end of apartheid and occupation, the right of return for refugees, or accountability for Israeli war crimes.”
