Protests and vigils have taken place around the world in support of Palestinians suffering in Gaza and to pay tribute to the four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelancers killed by Israel in the besieged enclave in a deliberate targeted assassination on Sunday. Journalists, students, activists, and members of civil society – notably in Cape Town, South Africa; Manila, the Philippines; and London, the United Kingdom – held the protests on Wednesday to call on their governments to put pressure on Israel to allow international media into Gaza and bring an end to Israel’s genocidal war there.
Late on Sunday, Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, were killed in an Israeli strike that had targeted their media tent located by al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Al-Sharif had been one of Gaza’s most recognizable faces for his constant reporting of the reality on the ground since Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
In Cape Town, members of civil society and journalists gathered at St George’s Cathedral to express their anger at al-Sharif’s murder, sporting placards with one reading “your voice was louder than their bombs”. The location is significant, said Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller, reporting from Cape Town, as “it’s been an important signal against oppression here in South Africa, especially during the decades of apartheid”.
The people gathered here “have condemned what Israel has done”, Miller said. “They want the entry of international journalists into Gaza in addition to the work being done by Palestinian journalists,” she said. “People here are angry.” Journalist Zubeida Jaffer told Miller, “I was one of the journalists who were targeted, you know those media that documented apartheid, so this really resonates with me.”
In London, reporters belonging to the UK branches of the National Union of Journalists paid their respects on Wednesday to the slain Al Jazeera workers outside the prime minister’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street, said Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from London. The reporters, holding placards bearing the names of journalists killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began, read out the names of each journalist that appeared on their placard and “symbolically, recited Islamic funeral prayers” for those killed on Sunday, said Hull.
Those present “have really condemned the British government … talking about its complicity in what is going on in Gaza, for not doing more and speaking out more,” said Hull. While British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday “talked about his grave concern” about the killings of the Al Jazeera journalists, those present on Wednesday “want outright condemnation and nothing less”, said Hull.
In Manila, students, campus journalists, and activists gathered at the University of the Philippines to express outrage at the killing of the Al Jazeera journalists. They say “the attack … is a deliberate cover-up by Israel of its crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip, said Barnaby Lo, reporting from Manila.
The protesters also gathered to urge “the international community to ramp up pressure on Israel to stop its genocide, including for the Philippine government to cut its trade and defence ties with Israel”, said Lo. The Philippines is the third-largest importer of Israeli weapons. In June, the Philippines voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, a small group of local and international journalists took part in a vigil. “Unfortunately, the vast majority of Israeli society and some mainstream journalists were celebrating this assassination, this targeted killing” of the Al Jazeera journalists, Oren Ziv, an Israeli journalist working at the independent +972 Magazine, told newsmen from Tel Aviv.
Ziv explained that he and others wanted to hold this vigil because they “wanted to express our anger and solidarity with the Palestinian journalists in Gaza that are doing an incredible job under very hard circumstances. And we also wanted to show that there are people here that oppose these targeted killings and assassinations.” Ziv added that he believes Israel deliberately targeted these journalists.