International journalist watchdog group skeptical of IDF claims.
Participants hold a poster that reads, ‘Targeting Journalists is a Crime.’ (Pictured in Malaysia, 2024) According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of May of this year, preliminary investigations showed at least 97 journalists and media workers were among the more than 35,000 killed since the war October 2023 Gaza war began. File Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE
Israel’s military said it uncovered documents that it says proves six journalists with the Middle East-based news source Al Jazeera are operatives with Hamas and other Palestinian-linked terror squads.
However, a New York-based international journalism association was skeptical of Israel’s accusations against the journalists. Advertisement
On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Forces said documents recovered in the Gaza Strip — including spreadsheets, training course lists, telephone and salary records — “unequivocally prove” that six journalists with Al-Jazeera were operatives who also functioned as members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist syndicates.
The IDF named Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Saraj, Ismail Abu Amr, and Talal Aruki as the accused.
In May, the Israeli government banned Al Jazeera from the country because of its coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza. The ban was extended, too.
“These documents are proof of the involvement of Hamas terrorists in the Qatari media network, Al Jazeera,” Israel’s military said in a statement.
Israel claimed the accused staff journalists are “spearheading” propaganda for Hamas by using Al Jazeera’s global platform.
It’s alleged that al-Sharif was head of a rocket launching squad. Salameh, IDF officials claimed, was deputy head of a propaganda outfit and a sniper. And al-Sarraj, according to the IDF, was a member of an Islamic Jihadist military unit while Abu Omar had been a training company commander previously wounded in an IDF airstrike several months prior. It’s also alleged that al-Arrouqi was a team commander in a Hamas batallion. Advertisement
On Wednesday, the international Committee to Protect Journalists took to social media to say it was aware of the IDF’s accusations against the Al Jazeera reporters and it voiced skepticism over the IDF claims.
“Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence,” the New York City-based nonprofit posted on X close to noon.
The global Al Jazeera network has fiercely denied Israel’s claims and accused the IDF of targeting Al Jazeera staff working in Gaza.
In January, the Israeli government iclaimed that an Al Jazeera staff reporter and a freelancer killed in an airstrike also were Hamas operatives. That was followed a month later by accusations that another Al Jazeera journalist who had been wounded in a different IDF strike was a Hamas leader, as well.
According to the CPJ, Israel was responsible for the July killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul.
However, Israel’s 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,” the journalist watchdog group added on Wednesday.
This follows an incident in May this year when Israeli officials wrongly detained journalists it incorrectly believed were working for the Israeli-banned Al Jazeera news broadcaster Advertisement
