At least five Al Jazeera journalists were killed in an Israeli strike near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the Qatar-based network said on Sunday, rejecting Israeli claims that one of the victims was a Hamas commander.

Al Jazeera identified the dead as correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Noufal.

They were among seven people killed when a tent for the press outside the hospital’s main gate was targeted.

“They were targeted in their tent, they weren’t covering from the front line,” Al Jazeera managing editor Mohamed Moawad told the BBC.

He said al-Sharif was an accredited journalist who was “the only voice” for the world to know what was happening in Gaza.

“Throughout the war, Israel has not allowed international journalists into Gaza to report freely,” Moawad added.

“The fact is that the Israeli government is wanting to silence the coverage of any channel of reporting from inside Gaza. This is something that I haven’t seen before in modern history.”

Israel’s military said the strike killed al-Sharif, describing him as the head of a Hamas cell “responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” and accused him of posing as an Al Jazeera journalist. It said intelligence and documents recovered in Gaza supported the allegation.

Al Jazeera condemned the attack as “a desperate attempt to silence voices” and described al-Sharif as “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”.

The network said: “Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices in Gaza conveying the tragic reality to the world.”

Before his death, al-Sharif had posted a message saying, “...I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is.”

The network “categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists,” it said.

Hamas warned that “the assassination of journalists and the intimidation of those who remain paves the way for a major crime” in Gaza.

Sara Qudah of the Committee to Protect Journalists said: “Israel’s pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom.”