The Israeli Army accused six journalists in Gaza on Wednesday of Qatari network Al Jazeerabanned in Israel since last April, of “being agents of the military wing” of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, ensuring that he has found documents in the enclave that would supposedly prove his relationship with the Palestinian militias.
“Security forces have revealed intelligence information and numerous documents found in the Gaza Strip that confirm the military affiliation of six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza with the terrorist organizations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” the Army said in a statement, in which it cited the journalists by name and surname.
In the note, they indicate that the documents found on these six Gazan journalists include “personnel charts, lists of terrorist training courses, telephone directories and terrorist salary documents.”
For Israel these documents “constitute a unequivocal proof that these individuals act as military agents of terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip” and are loudspeakers of “propaganda in favor of Hamas” especially in the north of the Strip through Al Jazeera.
The Islamist organization Hamas, which governs Gaza, responded to this with a statement in which it accused Israel of attempt to “morally murder” and “demonize” Palestinian journalists with this type of advertisement, and called his accusation a “false narrative.”
Hamas assured that the Jewish State has used lists of injured people to present them as lists of members of the organization, as well as that it has manipulated “general data that is not important or has any relationship” with the organization.
The Al Jazeera Media Network called this Wednesday Israeli Army accusations “invented” against six of its journalists in the Strip. The Qatari network said in a statement that it “vehemently condemns the recent unfounded accusations made by the Israeli occupation forces against its journalists operating in northern Gaza” and considered that these “invented” events represent “a flagrant attempt to silence the few journalists” that remain in the Strip.
Likewise, Al Jazeera denounced that these “unfounded accusations” arise after the network “exposed” possible war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, and recalled that the Qatari channel is “the only international media that documents the humanitarian crisis” in the Palestinian enclave.
“Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ description of our journalists as terrorists and denounces the use of invented tests“added the statement, which defended that its reporters “are simply fulfilling their professional duties.”
In this sense, he expressed his concern that these accusations “could serve as a pretext for greater violence against journalists”while recalling that in the last two years the Israeli Army “has attacked and killed several” Al Jazeera informants.
Israel’s accusations against Al Jazeera journalists come after Israeli troops over the past three weeks have intensified their offensive in the north of the Strip, already causing more than 700 deaths, thousands of injured people trapped and tens of thousands displaced, according to UN data.
This Tuesday, Al Jazeera denounced that Israel is preventing the “urgent medical evacuation” of two of its journalists who were seriously injured in Israeli attacks in the Strip two weeks ago.
The Qatari chain this banned in Israel since last April, when the Government accused the chain of being “harmful to national security.”
On September 22, Israel also ordered the closure of the Qatari office in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, after storming the headquarters with soldiers where they seized and destroyed equipment.
During the raid on the office, the soldiers They tore down a poster of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered two years ago by an Israeli soldier while covering a military raid in the occupied West Bank.
After the closure of the Ramallah office, the non-governmental organization Amnesty International accused Israeli authorities of “another brazen attack on the right to freedom of expression” and to deal a “crushing blow” to freedom of the press.
Al Jazeera is one of the channels with the greatest deployment and journalists in the Strip, where the Israeli Government does not allow access to the international press.
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