Israeli army links Al-Jazeera reporters to Hamas, captured documents reveal
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad documents seized by Israeli soldiers in Gaza confirm that six active Al-Jazeera journalists are members of those terror groups, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday.
Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau office on June 13, 2017. Photo by Hillel Maeir/TPS
“These documents are proof of the involvement of Hamas terrorists in the Qatari media network, Al-Jazeera,” the IDF said.
“Most of the journalists that the IDF exposes as operatives in the military wing of Hamas are the “tip of the spear” of spreading the propaganda messages of the terrorist organization Hamas as part of their work in Al Jazeera and especially in the northern Gaza Strip,” the army added.
The six journalists were identified as Anas Al-Sharif, Ala’ Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf al Sarraj, Ismail Abu Amr, and Talal al-Aruki.
The documents include personnel tables, lists of terrorist training courses, phone books and salary documents.
Israel moved to shut down Al-Jazeera’s operations in May, revoking the network’s press credentials, confiscating transmitters and blocking its websites. The shutdown is not permanent but is subject to renewal every 45 days. The Knesset is currently advancing legislation that would extend the ban to renewable 90-day intervals.
Efforts to ban Al Jazeera gained momentum in February after reporter Mohamed Washah was exposed as a Hamas commander. Soldiers recovered his laptop in northern Gaza and discovered that he played a prominent role in the terror group’s anti-armour missile systems.
Files seized and released by the IDF in August also confirmed that Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul was a member of Hamas. The file, dated 2021 and containing information about thousands of other Hamas terrorists, identified him as an engineer in Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade.
According to the IDF, Al-Ghoul went on to become a member of the terror group’s elite Nukhba force and participated in the October 7 attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border. He also instructed terrorists how to film and share video footage of attacks on Israeli soldiers. Al-Ghoul was killed in an airstrike along with Al Jazeera cameraman Ramy El-Rify in Gaza City in August.
In October, Al Jazeera was accused of endangering Israeli soldiers by exposing details of where forces were assembling, prompting the Cabinet to approve emergency regulations to temporarily shut down Al Jazeera operations in Israel.
The Tel Aviv District Court in July accepted the state’s request to ban the Qatari network, saying its broadcasts were “a real violation of state security.”
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
