IDF attempting to make us 'killable targets,' Al Jazeera journalist in north Gaza says
Israel has accused six Al Jazeera journalists of being "Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists," publishing their names and photographs.
Al Jazeera said the claims were "unfounded" and "fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide," in a statement.
Hossam Shabat, one of the journalists named said dossiers released by the IDF claiming to link the journalists to militant groups were "fabricated."
“This blatant and belligerent attempt to transform us, the last witnesses in the north, into killable targets is an assassination threat and obvious attempt to preemptively justify our murder,” he said in a post on X.
Israel and Al Jazeera have history, but this latest claim has sparked major concern amongst media organizations and prominent journalists around the world.
"Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence. After killing Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul in July, the IDF previously 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 to Protect Journalists said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question about the accusations saying he can't speak to the accuracy of them, but said "it clearly needs to be examined."
"We very much support the work of journalists in Gaza and everywhere else around the world and including in areas of conflict and we're equally determined that journalists be protected. Far too many have lost their lives in Gaza. We're determined to do what we can to ensure that, again, they can do their work safely and securely as possible," Blinken told reporters during a joint press conference in Doha on Thursday.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, also commented on the the accusations.
"At Al-Jazeera, they are running at the highest international standards, and if there are any premises to these accusations, they are going to take care of the measures that's needed for their journalists. But also, we need to know that we learned throughout this war that we cannot take those accusations of Israel for face value," he said.
-ABC News' Guy Davies