IDF says Al Jazeera cameraman killed in Gaza was member of Islamic Jihad

The IDF accuses Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed al-Louh, who was killed in an airstrike earlier today in the central Gaza Strip, of being a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

In a statement, the military says it carried out a drone strike against a group of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror operatives at a command center, based out of the offices of the Gaza Civil Defense organization in Nuseirat.

“The compound was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terror acts against IDF troops in the immediate time frame,” the military says.

According to the IDF, several terror operatives were killed in the strike, including al-Louh, who is accused of previously serving as a platoon commander in Islamic Jihad’s central Gaza brigade.

The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, including by using precision munitions, aerial surveillance and other intelligence.

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

And in October, the IDF said it had uncovered documents in Gaza that show six active Al Jazeera reporters were operatives in the Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

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