Israel Links Al Jazeera To Hamas
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DOHA/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel says at least six journalists of Qatar-based Al Jazeera are working for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) groups, prompting an angry response from the global broadcaster.
Israel’s military said that intelligence gathered from the Gaza Strip showed that Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Saraj, Ismail Abu Amr, and Talal Aruki “are all affiliated with the military wings of either Hamas or PIJ.”
Ismail Abu Amr was injured several months ago in Gaza by an Israeli attack in a period that Al Jazeera denied his membership in Hamas, several sources said.
However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that documents recovered by the IDF showed “this was untrue” and that he had links to Hamas, viewed as a terrorist organization by Israel’s government and most of its allies.
Some of the documents “include personnel tables, terrorist training courses, phone books, and salary documents for terrorists,” Israeli defense sources said.
The IDF said this “unequivocally proves that they function as military terrorist operatives of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.”
They added that these documents prove that the exposed Al Jazeera journalists “are part of Hamas’s military wing” and its “propaganda war against Israel.”
‘FABRICATED EVIDENCE’
Al Jazeera said that it “categorically rejects” the “Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence.”
The “Al Jazeera Media Network vehemently condemns the recent unfounded allegations made by Israeli occupation forces against its journalists operating in northern Gaza,” it said in a statement seen by Worthy News on Thursday.
“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 stressed that “these baseless claims follow” its recent “exposé of potential war crimes” allegedly committed by Israeli forces during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel has vehemently denied carrying out war crimes. Al Jazeera did not speak in its reaction about the Hamas October 7, 2023, attacks against Israel that sparked the war.
Some 1,200 people were killed and hundreds kidnapped in what Israel called the “worst atrocities since the Holocaust,” also known as the Shoah.
Yet the targeted “journalists have been steadfastly reporting from northern Gaza,” Al Jazeera said. The broadcaster added they served as “the sole international media presence documenting the unfolding humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s siege and bombardment of civilian populations.”
PROFESSIONAL DUTIES
The “journalists are merely fulfilling their professional duties, documenting and reporting on the devastating impact of the war on the [Gaza] Strip’s two million civilians.”
Speaking in Doha on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Israeli accusation “clearly needs to be examined.”
Blinken said, however, “We very much support the work of journalists in Gaza and everywhere else around the world, including in areas of conflict. He added that “far too many have lost their lives in Gaza.”
He spoke during a joint news conference in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani, who called state-sponsored Al Jazeera an “independent media institution run out of Doha.”
The prime minister said, “We are very proud” of Al Jazeera, “an institution that has gained worldwide respect.”
However, he said, “We expect that Al Jazeera will run at the highest international standards, and they are going to.”
Al Thani said, “If there are any premises to these accusations, they are going to take care of the measures needed for their journalists.”
BROADER CONCERNS
While Qatar’s government pledged to examine possible links between Al Jazeera and Hamas, the network warned that the Israeli accusations are “part of a wider pattern of hostility towards Al Jazeera.”
The broadcaster said it “fears these allegations may serve as a pretext for further violence against the journalists.”
He said such violence would be “mirroring the tragic fates of other media professionals targeted and killed by Israeli occupation forces.”
Israel has strongly denied targeting journalists and civilians.
Israel’s government and military say “terrorists use civilians as human shields,” causing casualties among ordinary residents.
More than 130 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out after the October 7, 2023, attacks, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) group.
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