JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military targeted and killed an Al Jazeera correspondent and others with an airstrike late Sunday in Gaza , after press advocates said an Israeli “smear campaign” stepped up when Anas al-Sharif cried on air over starvation in the territory .

Both Israel and hospital officials in Gaza City confirmed the deaths of al-Sharif and colleagues, which the Committee to Protect Journalists and others described as retribution against those documenting the war in Gaza . Israel’s military asserted that al-Sharif had led a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif previously dismissed as baseless.

Five of the slain journalists were Al Jazeera staffers. The military has previously said it targeted individuals it described as Hamas militants posing as repor

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