Al Jazeera calls Israeli army claims 'baseless' after IDF accuses 6 journalists of being militants
Journalists named say threats won't stop them but fear allegations will be used to justify killing them
The Israeli military on Wednesday accused six Palestinian journalists with Al Jazeera of involvement with Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups, claims that the Qatari news network "vehemently condemns."
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) published documents Wednesday which it said it had found in Gaza that proved the men were militarily affiliated with the groups. CBC News was not able to independently verify the files' authenticity.
In an online statement Wednesday, Al Jazeera called the allegations "baseless," and said the IDF is instead trying to silence the few remaining journalists in the war-torn enclave.
"Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces' portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence."
It called on the international community to intervene and protect its journalists.
The network is one of a handful still broadcasting daily from the besieged enclave, in part because the Israeli military has largely banned foreign journalists from Gaza, except on a limited number of supervised tours.
The accusations come as Israeli forces intensify a deadly siege of northern Gaza — where the UN estimates roughly 400,000 Palestinians remain — surrounding hospitals and refugee shelters and ordering residents to head south.
Israel says papers prove integration with militant groups
The six accused journalists are Talal Aruki, Alaa Salama, Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ismail Farid and Ashraf Saraj. Several of them, including al-Sharif, have become mainstay figures of the outlet's 24-hour live coverage of Gaza.
The Israeli military said the papers it published included Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad lists of personnel details, salaries and militant training courses, phone directories and injury reports. It said four of the journalists are or have been affiliated with Hamas, and two with the Islamic Jihad.
"These documents serve as proof of the integration of Hamas terrorists within the Qatari Al Jazeera media network," the military said in a post on X on Wednesday.
The satellite news network, which is based in Qatar and primarily funded by its government, has been critical of Israel's military operation in Gaza and has faced claims of bias. It maintains that it operates independently.
'Threats will not stop us,' named journalist says
Ashraf Saraj, one of the accused journalists, has worked in Gaza since 2018.
"I'm innocent of all of these accusations. I have no involvement in any military activities," Saraj told CBC News Thursday.
"There's a very real feeling that we're waiting for our death. These threats will not stop us."
Hossam Shabat, another of the six, called the documents "fabricated dossiers," and an "obvious attempt to pre-emptively justify our murder."
"Despite these dangerous and untrue threats made against us, we remain committed to our profession and will continue to report the facts on the ground as the genocide regretfully continues unabated."
Al Jazeera has accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing several of its journalists in Gaza in the past year, including Samer Abu Daqqa, Ismail al-Ghoul and Hamza al-Dahdouh. Israel has denied such allegations, saying it does not purposely target journalists.
In a prominent incident in 2022, Israeli forces shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist for Al Jazeera, while she was reporting on an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank. The IDF eventually admitted responsibility for the killing, saying it was accidental, after initially denying it. A spokesperson later apologized for her death.
Committee to Protect Journalists condemns accusations
At least 128 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the war began, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. They include 123 Palestinians, two Israelis and three Lebanese.
The committee said this isn't the first time Israel has accused journalists of militant involvement "without producing credible evidence."
It referred to a previous incident in July, when an Israeli airstrike killed two Al Jazeera journalists, including al-Ghoul. The military "produced a similar document, which contained contradictory information, showing that al-Ghoul, born in 1997, received a Hamas military ranking in 2007 — when he would have been 10 years old."
"Smear campaigns endanger journalists and erode public trust in the media. Israel must end this practice and allow independent international investigations into the journalists' killings," said CPJ program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna.
Reporters Without Borders said on X it was "alarmed" by the Israeli army's accusations against the six journalists.
Israel's previous claims against Al Jazeera
Israel has long accused Al Jazeera of being a Hamas mouthpiece. Earlier this year, it passed a new law shutting down the news outlet's operations in the country, citing security reasons. Israel also raided its offices there and confiscated its equipment.
Following that decision, Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah in the West Bank, and ordered its immediate closure last month.
Al Jazeera said the latest allegations are "part of a wider pattern of hostility."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, currently on a Middle East tour, said Thursday he couldn't speak to the veracity of the accusations. Blinken spoke from a joint conference in Doha with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign affairs minister.
Al Thani said Thursday that Al Jazeera must act if there is truth to Israel's accusations against its journalists, but that the claims must be treated with skepticism.
Qatar has been a key player in Gaza ceasefire negotiations, along with Egypt and the United States, though the talks have been deadlocked for months. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an Israeli delegation will travel to Doha on Sunday, to try to restart talks.
As the war moves into its second year, the death toll from the Israeli campaign in Gaza is approaching 43,000, according to Palestinian authorities, with the densely populated enclave in ruins and almost all of its population displaced.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, after a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed some 1,200 and took more than 250 hostage.
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With files from Mohamed El Saife, Reuters and The Associated Press