GAZA (Dispatches) – Al Jazeera on Sunday condemned Israel’s “baseless accusations” against cameraman Ahmed Wishah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. 
He is the 12th Al Jazeera media worker to be killed since Israel began its genocide against Gaza in October 2023.
The Israeli military claimed, without providing evidence, that Wishah was a “sniper operative” in Hamas’s military wing, killed alongside two other militants in a “precise strike”. 
Al Jazeera denounced the accusation as a “smear campaign” designed to justify “the deliberate targeting of journalists and cameramen”.
“These attempts deceive no one,” the network said, calling on the international community to prosecute Israeli officials responsible for these crimes.
Wishah’s brother, Muhammad, also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed in an Israeli strike in April. The brothers had worked as a team, documenting the suffering of Palestinians. After Muhammad’s death, Ahmed took care of his late brother’s children.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israeli forces have killed at least 262 journalists and media workers since October 2023. Reporters Without Borders confirms that at least 70 were killed in the context of their professional duties. 
Israel has detained another 50 journalists, while three remain missing. More than 420 journalists have been injured, many suffering amputations and permanent disabilities.
The killing of Wishah follows a pattern of Israeli attacks on Al Jazeera staff. In August 2025, Anas al-Sharif, one of Gaza’s most recognizable correspondents, and four colleagues were killed in an airstrike. His 90-year-old father had been killed in a strike on their family home two years earlier, after Israeli officials had threatened Sharif by phone to stop his coverage.
In 2022, Israeli occupation forces shot and killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin. Independent investigations concluded she was killed by an Israeli sniper.
“The occupation deliberately kills journalists and anyone covering events on the ground,” said Bilal Abu Samak, a freelance journalist in Gaza, speaking of the shock of Wishah’s killing.
Al Jazeera has vowed to continue covering Israel’s crimes despite attempts to silence its correspondents. “We will not be silenced,” the network said.