Al Jazeera says targeted ‘militant’ was a journalist

rabic channel correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in a strike on the al-Shati refugee camp.

Mourners and colleagues recite a prayer over the body of Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul this week. Picture: AFP

The Israeli military said it had “eliminated” a Hamas militant in an airstrike in Gaza, which Al Jazeera reported had killed two of its journalists.

The news service said on Wednesday its Arabic channel correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi were “targeted by Israeli occupation forces” in a strike during their coverage of Gaza’s al-Shati refugee camp.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the military said its fighter jets “struck and eliminated Ismail al-Ghoul, a Hamas military wing operative”. Ghoul had “participated in the October 7 massacre”.

“As part of his role in the military wing, Ghoul instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicising attacks against (Israeli) troops.”

Al Jazeera bureau chief for Ramallah and Jerusalem, Walid al-Omari, rejected the military’s accusation.

“It is completely false,” he said. “Al Jazeera rejects the claim and the lies and considers them a blatant attempt to justify targeting journalists in Gaza.”

He said Ghoul had been previously detained by the army for 12 hours in March and then released “unconditionally”.

“If their claims were true, would they have released him? It is clear that the occupation authorities are trying to justify their crime by claiming that he was one of the elite (Hamas militants) and participated in the October 7 attack.”

Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, Al Jazeera has aired continuous on-the-ground reporting on the effects of Israel’s campaign. The network’s office in Gaza has already been bombed in the conflict and two other correspondents killed.

Al Jazeera has been the focus of months of criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. Last month, an Israeli court confirmed it had extended a ban on the network, which broadcasts in Arabic and English, initially placed on Al Jazeera in early May.

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 strike of being a “deputy company commander” with Hamas.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting its employees.

Its bureau chief in Gaza, Wael al-Dahdouh, was wounded in an Israeli strike in December that killed a cameraman. His wife, two of their children and a grandson were killed in the October bombardment of central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. His eldest son was the Al Jazeera staff journalist killed in January when a strike targeted a car in Rafah.

AFP