Israeli military officials announced on Wednesday that documents uncovered by their soldiers in Gaza indicate six Al Jazeera employees in the coastal enclave are allegedly operatives for the terrorist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The individuals were identified by Israel as journalists Anas al-Sharif, Talal Aruki, Ismail Farid, Alaa Salama, Ashraf Saraj, and Hosam Shabat.
The IDF claims the captured materials include the accused listed in personnel rosters, payroll registries, telephone directories, and training schedules.
The records purportedly reveal that one of the correspondents, Anas al-Sharif, held the position of a commander in a rocket battery and was part of Hamas’s Nukhba Force. However, it was not mentioned if he played a role in the October 7 massacre in southern Israel, which was mainly executed by the elite shock detachment.
According to the accusations, the other associates of the Qatar-based news outlet were deployed in two infantry formations, a propaganda unit, a sniper section, and a training company.
In their statement on the matter, the IDF blamed the involved parties for “spearheading” anti-Israel content in their media presentations on the Arab-language television network.
Al Jazeera strongly denied the allegations from Jerusalem, saying in a press release it “categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence,” before describing the report as containing “baseless claims.”
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