IDF claims uncovered documents prove 6 Al Jazeera journalists are Hamas, PIJ operatives

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Al Jazeera journalists accused by the IDF of being members of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups, in a graphic released by the IDF on October 23, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Al Jazeera journalists accused by the IDF of being members of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups, in a graphic released by the IDF on October 23, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it has uncovered documents in the Gaza Strip it claims reveal that six Al Jazeera journalists are operatives in the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.

The journalists are named by the IDF as Anas al-Sharif, Alaa Salameh, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf al-Sarraj, Ismail Abu Omar, and Talal al-Arrouqi.

According to the IDF, al-Sharif was the head of a rocket launching squad and a member of a Nukhba Force company in Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion; Salameh was the deputy head of the Shaboura Battalion’s propaganda unit, in Islamic Jihad; Shabat was a sniper in Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion; al-Sarraj was a member of Islamic Jihad’s Bureij Battalion; Abu Omar served as a training company commander in the East Khan Younis Battalion, and he been wounded in an Israeli airstrike several months ago; and al-Arrouqi was a team commander in Hamas’s Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion.

The military releases the documents, which it says show personnel spreadsheets, lists of training courses, telephone books, and salary documents.

It says the documents “unequivocally prove” that the journalists functioned as members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s respective military wings.

“These documents are proof of the involvement of Hamas terrorists in the Qatari media network, Al-Jazeera,” the IDF says in a statement.

The IDF says that the named journalists are “spearheading” the spread of Hamas propaganda on Al Jazeera, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.

In January, Israel said an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an airstrike in Gaza were terror operatives.

The following month, it accused another journalist with the channel, who was wounded in a separate strike, of being a deputy company commander with Hamas.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.

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