EXCLUSIVE : Mohamed Shalaby was an frequent BBC contract worker for seven years before his most recent assignment ended abruptly last month. Shalaby was embedded at BBC Verify, the flagship fact-checking initiative, tasked with verifying footage of unspeakable horrors from Gaza. Images of dismembered children are burned into his brain.

On August 10, Shalaby was at work when Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif was killed in an Israeli strike. The Egyptian filmmaker tells Deadline that he was one of the first BBC News reporters to jump on the story, helping organize an interview with Al Jazeera’s managing editor, Mohamed Moawad. But the day after Al-Sharif’s death, Shalaby was anxious about the veracity of BBC News’ own reporting on the journalist’s background.

Correspondent Jon Donn

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