Five Al Jazeera journalists including prominent reporter Anas al-Sharif have been killed in a targeted Israeli strike near Gaza City`s Al-Shifa Hospital, writes BBC.

Al-Sharif and another correspondent, Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa were in a tent for journalists at the hospital`s main gate when it was struck, the broadcaster said.

The "targeted assassination" on Sunday was "yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom", it said. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was appalled by the attack.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had targeted al-Sharif, alleging he had "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas". It also said he had "advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops" and claimed to have Hamas documents that showed he had been in one of the group`s units in 2019. However, the CPJ said Israel had failed to provide evidence to back up its allegations.

"This is a pattern we`ve seen from Israel - not just in the current war, but in the decades preceding - in which typically a journalist will be killed by Israeli forces and then Israel will say after the fact that they are a terrorist, but provides very little evidence to back up those claims", CPJ`s CEO Jodie Ginsberg told the BBC. Al Jazeera`s managing editor Mohamed Moawad told the BBC that al-Sharif was an accredited journalist who was "the only voice" for the world to know what was happening in the Gaza Strip.