Israel accuses 6 Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza of being Palestinian militants

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli army on Wednesday accused six Al Jazeera journalists covering the war in Gaza of also being current or former paid fighters for Palestinian militant groups. Al Jazeera rejected the claims.

Israel cited documents it purportedly found in Gaza, and other intelligence it gathered, in making the accusations against the journalists, all of whom are Palestinian men. It said four are or have been affiliated with Hamas, and two with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera said the accusations were “fabricated” and “part of a wider pattern of hostility” toward the pan-Arab network. It said the claims were “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”

The Associated Press has been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the documents Israel posted online to support its claims.

Al Jazeera is based in the energy-rich nation of Qatar, where many senior Hamas officials are based. The Gulf Arab country, which funds Al Jazeera, also has been a key player in Gaza cease-fire negotiations, along with the U.S. and Egypt.

Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ismael Abu Omar, and Talal Arrouki were accused by Israel of ties to Hamas. Ashraf Saraj and Alaa Salameh were accused of ties to Islamic Jihad.

The men have held various roles, according to documents Israel cited -- sniper, infantry soldier, fighter, captain, training coordinator and “propaganda.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement on Wednesday that was critical of Israel, which it said “has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”

In July, after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed two Al Jazeera journalists, including Ismail Al Ghoul, Israel “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,” the committee said in its statement.

Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad led last year's attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostages into Gaza. They have been fighting alongside each other against Israeli troops in Gaza for the past year.

In January, Israel detailed allegations against 12 employees of a United Nations agency that it says were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel last year that ignited the war in Gaza. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, subsequently fired at least 21 staffers for their roles in the attack. UNRWA has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to civilians in Gaza during the war.

Four Al Jazeera journalists have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza over the past 12 months, according to the network. Several of the dead later have been accused by Israel of being members of either Hamas or Islamic Jihad, accusations rejected by the Qatari outlet.

In May, after an Israeli court ordered the closure of Al Jazeera's operations and broadcasts within Israel, police raided a hotel room in East Jerusalem from where the network had been broadcasting live images.

It was the first time Israel had ever shuttered a foreign news outlet. Four months later, Israel raided Al Jazeera's office in the Palestinian-governed West Bank city of Ramallah, shutting down the bureau there.

Several of those named by Israel on Wednesday, including al-Sharif, have become mainstay figures of the outlet's 24-hour live coverage of Gaza. They have acquired celebrity-like status among Palestinians and in other countries across the Middle East.

Al Jazeera is one of a handful of news organizations still broadcasting daily from the besieged enclave.

The documents and intelligence Israel released Wednesday purportedly show the rank, role, enlistment date, and battalion of each of the six Al Jazeera journalists.

At least 128 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since last October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. They include 123 Palestinians, two Israelis and three Lebanese.

Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the war began, according to the local health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says more than half of the dead are women and children.

Even before the war, tensions between Al Jazeera and Israel ran high. Israeli forces shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, in May 2022 as she reported on a story in the West Bank.

Israel isn't the only critic of Al Jazeera. The U.S. singled out the broadcaster during its occupation of Iraq after its 2003 invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, and for airing videos of the late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attack against the U.S.

Al Jazeera has been closed or blocked by other governments in the Middle East. In 2013, Egyptian authorities seeking to crush mass protests against President Mohammed Morsi raided a luxury hotel used by Al Jazeera.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.