The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday alleged that six Al Jazeera journalists are members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, two Islamist terrorist organizations, citing documents it uncovered in Gaza.
The IDF said on X/Twitter that it had obtained documents and intelligence information revealing that the six journalists — Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif, Alaa Abdul Aziz Muhammad Salama, Hossam Basel Abdul Karim Shabat, Ashraf Sami Ashour Saraj, Ismail Farid Muhammad Abu Omar, and Talal Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Aruki — are members of the Palestinian terrorist groups, arguing the revelations call into question the credibility and impartiality of Al Jazeera’s reporting in Gaza.
“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 terrorist organizations, including personnel tables, lists of terrorist training courses, phone directories, and salary documents for terrorists,” the IDF wrote on X/Twitter.
“These documents serve as proof of the integration of Hamas terrorists within the Qatari Al Jazeera media network,” the Israeli military added. “Most of the journalists that the IDF has exposed as operatives in Hamas’ military wing spearhead the propaganda for Hamas at Al Jazeera, especially in northern Gaza.”
EXPOSED: 6 Al Jazeera journalists have been exposed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.
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
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 23, 2024
Abu Omar suffered injuries during an IDF strike in February and underwent surgery for a leg amputation. Al Jazeera English defended him by writing on social media that “Israeli aggression will not quash journalistic endeavors in the Gaza Strip.”
The IDF subsequently accused Abu Omar of serving as a deputy commander within Hamas’s Eastern Battalion of Khan Yunis and even participating in the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel last year. Eyewitnesses have accused the Al Jazeera reporter of helping facilitate the Hamas incursion into Israel.
In August, the IDF accused Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul of doubling as a senior Hamas operative and alleged that he participated in the Oct. 7 onslaught.
Al Jazeera slammed the IDF’s claims about its journalists as “baseless” and argued that the Israeli military has exhibited a “pattern of hostility.”
“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,” added in a statement.
Approximately one-third of journalists killed during the war in Gaza were employed by Hamas-affiliated media such as Al-Aqsa Voice Radio, Al-Quds Al-Youm, Al-Aqsa Television, and Quds News, according to reporting by Jewish Insider. Al-Aqsa Television was designated by the US Department of Treasury for being controlled and financed by Hamas.
Last month, the IDF conducted a raid on the Al Jazeera offices in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. The IDF accused Al Jazeera of using the offices “to incite terror” and ordered them closed for 45 days. Al Jazeera decried the allegations as “unfounded” and lambasted the IDF for allegedly suppressing freedom of press.
