Hundreds of Bay Area residents attended an emergency protest in San Francisco organized in response to Israel's assassination of six journalists in Gaza. Israel killed four Al Jazeera staff in a targeted airstrike on August 10: correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal. Two freelancers who worked with Al Jazeera, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammad al-Khaldi, were also killed.

At least ten Al Jazeera journalists have been killed by the IDF since October 7, 2023, not including freelancers. The United Nations reports that Israel has killed 242 Palestinian journalists in all. The August 12 rally was organized "to demand accountability for the assassination of journalists and an end to the genocide in Gaza." The event began in Union Square and then evolved into a march on Market Street, with many protesters holding horrific photos of starved Palestinian infants. The crowd included a large number of young people.

In a statement announcing the killing of Anas al-Sharif, Israel’s military accused the journalist of heading a Hamas cell and of “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops.” According to the Foreign Press Association, "over the past 22 months, the Israeli military has repeatedly labelled Palestinian journalists as militants, often without verifiable evidence, turning them into targets."

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