‘If these words reach you, Israel has silenced me’: Palestinian journalist’s heartfelt will revealed

The final will belonging to a dedicated Palestinian journalist has surfaced, revealing how he anticipated martyrdom at any moment amid his unwavering resolve to share the Palestinian nation’s plight with the world.

“This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice,” Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif wrote earlier this year.

He was slain on Sunday in targeted Israeli strikes against Gaza City that also claimed the lives of four other personnel enlisted with the news network.

The 28-year-old victim rose to prominence due to his lifelong resolve to live up to his journalistic mission, as witnessed by his making sacrifices at numerous junctures and braving the prospect of imminent assassination by the Israeli regime. His efforts earned him a reputation as the most high-profile one in the field throughout the October 2023-present Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia Refugee Camp” in northern Gaza, he wrote.

“I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification,” his will read.

Addressing the global inaction in the face of the genocide, he reprimanded “those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath.”

The complacent parties, Sharif lamented, “were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.”

‘I entrust you with Palestine’

The journalist, meanwhile, wished that, upon his departure, the world would refuse to forsake the Palestinians, while they struggled for the realization of their cause of liberation from Western-backed Israeli occupation and aggression.

“I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world.”

He urged tireless pursuit of the cause “until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland.”

‘Make my blood a light that illuminates’

Sharif credited himself with seeking to strive until death, while remaining “steadfast upon my principles,” and hoped his journey would serve to inspire those seeking to tread down his path.

“Make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family.”

Right before succumbing to genocidal violence, he had warned about the repercussions of the regime’s latest push to fully occupy Gaza City.

Tens of thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands wounded, he wrote in his final post on X.

“If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.”

Survived by his two children, wife, and mother, Sharif was among the roughly 240 journalists who have perished throughout the genocide.

In his will, he also said he had hoped to return to his homeland in the occupied Palestinian territories before dhis emise.

Mourning his martyrdom, pro-Palestinian journalists across the world have noted how his loss conjures up poignant memories of other Palestinian journalists, who have been targeted by the regime while fulfilling their mission.

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