Israel Has Now Accused Six Al Jazeera Journalists Covering Its Siege Of North Gaza Of Being Hamas
Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ismail Abu Omar, Talal Aruki, Ashraf Saraj and Alaa Salama have all been covering Israel’s siege of North Gaza since Oct. 6, which has killed more than 450 Palestinians.
Israel has now accused six journalists from Al Jazeera of being affiliated with Hamas and another Palestinian militant group in Gaza, an accusation that has been "categorically rejected" by the media outlet.
On Wednesday, Oct. 23, the Israeli military said it had found intelligence and documents connected Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ismail Abu Omar, Talal Aruki, Ashraf Saraj, and Alaa Salama to militant groups.
EXPOSED: 6 Al Jazeera journalists have been exposed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 23, 2024
The IDF has disclosed intelligence information and numerous documents found in Gaza confirming military affiliation of six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad… pic.twitter.com/quVmr2zE8B
All six journalists have been covering Israel’s siege of North Gaza since Oct. 6, which has killed more than 450 Palestinians and left more than 400,000 people trapped without food and water.
The Israeli military claimed that the journalists work as “operatives in Hamas' military wing” and are promoting Hamas "propaganda" at Al Jazeera, particularly in northern Gaza.
It said that four of them are connected to Hamas, while two are allegedly linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in the Gaza Strip.
I’m a reporter on the ground in North Gaza, and I’m here to tell you that no aid has entered the besieged area for the past 21 days. The Israeli and American governments are spreading inaccurate information.
— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) October 22, 2024
The Israeli military claimed that it had found documents in Gaza that included personnel details, salary information, lists of militant training courses and phone directories related to Hamas.
"These documents serve as proof of the integration of Hamas terrorists within the Qatari Al Jazeera media network," the Israeli military said in a statement on X.
In response, Al Jazeera vehemently denied these allegations, calling them as "baseless" and "fabricated."
“Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence,” the Qatari media outlet said.
“The Network views these fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide,” it added.
Al Jazeera also pointed out these accusations is “a part of a wider pattern of hostility towards Al Jazeera” and comes after their investigative team reported on war crimes committed by Israeli forces during their ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The media outlet also asserted that it is one of the few international media organizations whose journalists are still covering the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed its concern regarding the Israeli military’s accusations, saying that Israel has a history of making “similar unproven claims without providing credible evidence” to support them.
“After killing Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul in July, the [Israeli military] previously produced a similar document, which contained contradictory information, showing that Al Ghoul, born in 1997, received a Hamas military ranking in 2007 – when he would have been 10 years old,” CPJ wrote in a statement.
Israel has long accused Al Jazeera of being a supporter of Hamas and has taken several actions against the media outlet, including forcing it to shut down its operations, raiding its offices, confiscating equipment, as well as killing and detaining its journalists.
Israel has already killed several of Al Jazeera’s journalists since it began its genocide in Gaza, including the outlet’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa, Al-Dahdouh’s journalist son Hamza, journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami Al-Rifi.
Just two weeks earlier, it shot Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi Al-Wahidi, who was covering its raid of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, in the neck and critically injured him.
Al-Wahidi subsequently fell into a coma and is still waiting for Israeli authorities to approve his medical evacuation from Gaza.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 175 Palestinian journalists who have been fiercely and relentlessly reporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, several of them used to work for Al Jazeera.
Isha Jain
Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
