Israel accuses 6 Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza of being militants

2024-10-24 08:18:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Israeli army has accused six journalists of the medium, Al Jazeera, who cover the war in Gaza, that they are also or have been fighters of Palestinian militant groups.

Al Jazeera has denied these allegations.

Israel cited documents it allegedly found in Gaza, and other information it has gathered, as it made the allegations against the journalists, all Palestinian men. The military said four of them are or were linked to Hamas - the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union - and two to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera said the allegations were "fabricated" and "part of wider hostile behavior" towards the pan-Arab network. The media outlet said the allegations were "a blatant attempt to silence the few journalists left in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh reality of the war from audiences around the world."

The authenticity of the documents published online on October 23 by Israel could not be independently verified.

Al Jazeera is headquartered in Qatar, where many Hamas officials are also based. Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera, is also a key player in negotiations to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, along with the US and Egypt.

Journalists Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ismael Abu Omar and Talal Arrouki were accused of having ties to Hamas. Meanwhile, Ashraf Saraj and Alaa Salameh were accused of links with Islamic Jihad.

According to the documents cited by Israel, these journalists had different roles: sniper, infantry soldier, captain, training coordinator and the role of spreading "propaganda".

The Committee to Protect Journalists also released a statement critical of Israel, saying that Israel "has repeatedly made these unsubstantiated claims, without providing credible evidence."

In July, during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, two Al Jazeera journalists were killed, including Ismail Al Ghoul, for whom Israel "had produced similar documents, which included contradictory information and said that Al Ghoul, born in 1977, had received military rank in Hamas in 2007 – when he would have been ten years old,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

According to the media network, four Al Jazeera journalists have been killed during Israeli attacks in Gaza in the past 12 months. Some of the slain journalists have since been accused by Israel of being members of either Hamas or Islamic Jihad, accusations that have been denied by media in Qatar.

In May, an Israeli court ordered the closure of Al Jazeera's operations and broadcasting inside Israel, and police raided a hotel room in East Jerusalem from which the network had been broadcasting live. Four months later, Israel raided Al Jazeera's offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and subsequently closed its bureau in the country.

The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants attacked southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping nearly 250 others.

As a result of the Israeli offensive, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Also, since October last year at least 128 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel and Lebanon./ Rel