Al Jazeera has Strongly refuse The Israeli military claimed that the correspondent killed in an airstrike in Gaza this week was a Hamas operative involved in the October 7 attack.
Harrowing footage shared on social media showed Ismail Gul’s body being decapitated after being attacked in his car in Gaza City on Wednesday.
His photographer, Rami al-Rifi, and Khalid Shawa, a boy passing by on his bicycle, were also killed.
While regional news this week has been dominated by other high-profile assassinations, many Palestinians are also concerned about the killing of a prominent local journalist.
In a statement on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described Ismail Ghor as a “Hamas military wing operative and Nuhba terrorist”, suggesting he was a member of the armed group’s elite unit.
As part of his duties, he allegedly “instructed other agents how to document operations and was actively involved in documenting and publicizing attacks against IDF units”.
Al Jazeera called the accusations against its staff “baseless” and said it “underscores Israel’s long history of fabricating lies and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes.”
Ismail’s brother Jihad also told the BBC that his late brother was just a civilian who “portrayed the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza to the outside world”.
The Gaza City-based journalist has become a regular guest on the Qatari TV channel, a popular news source in the region but strongly criticized by Israeli authorities.
Prayers were held in Gaza on Friday for the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran, and some Palestinians said they were also thinking of those killed closer to home. people.
“I’m so heartbroken for Ismail [al-Ghoul]”, commented Maha Sarsak, who has been displaced from Shujaya to the center of the zone. “I follow the news in the north through him on social media. We don’t always have television, but We can hear his voice on the radio.
This week, journalists in Gaza put down their body armor at a gathering to honor Ghor and Riffey.
A friend of the two said: “They haven’t slept or eaten for several days. They have even lost a lot of weight.
Ismail al-Ghoul reported on the Israeli attack on Shifa hospital in March and was arrested by the IDF at the scene but released 12 hours later without any charges. Al Jazeera claimed this “debunks and refutes their false claims that he has links to any organization”.
The last assignment for Al Jazeera’s two journalists was to gather responses to the news of Haniyeh’s death. Their car was attacked near the destroyed house of Hamas leaders near the city’s refugee camp, al-Shadi camp.
During the war, Israel banned international journalists from entering the Palestinian territories, except for limited and highly controlled visits with the Israeli military. Egypt also banned journalists before closing the Rafah crossing with Gaza.
For more than a decade, many networks, including the BBC, have relied on local Palestinian staff for on-the-ground reporting and have hired new staff or freelancers.
Al Jazeera said Ismail Gul had been working at the channel since November. He was said to have suffered “suffering” during the war, including the loss of his father and brother.
Other photographers spoke of how al-Rifi used his technical expertise to help them with their shoots.
After photos of the death of Khaled al-Shawa, a boy killed in the strike, were widely publicized, the boy’s mother posted a message on social media imploring people to remember him too.
“My son is not an unknown martyr,” she said. “We must name our martyrs. They should not talk about us as numbers.
Al Jazeera, which broadcasts in English and Arabic, has recently been the site of a series of attacks against staff and their families in Gaza.
In late October, the network’s prominent bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, was reporting when he received broadcast news that his wife, daughter, son and grandson had been killed in Israeli air strikes.
In December, he was injured in an attack that also killed another Al Jazeera cameraman, Samer Abudaqa.
In January, Mr. Dahedo’s son Hamza and video journalist Mustafa Turia were killed in a strike while working for Al Jazeera. The Israel Defense Forces later claimed the men were “members of a terrorist organization in Gaza”.
Al Jazeera has previously strongly denied Israel’s claims and accused it of systematically targeting its employees.
The network also condemned the Israeli government’s decision in May to ban the show from airing in the country, saying it endangered national security. Last month, the Tel Aviv District Court extended the ban.
The United Nations has called for a full investigation and accountability into the killings of Al Jazeera journalists and others, saying journalists around the world must be protected.
There are varying statistics on the number of media workers killed since the unprecedented and deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
However, according to Committee to Protect JournalistsThe latest deaths in Gaza bring the number of journalists killed to 113, including 108 Palestinians, three Lebanese and two Israelis killed in the October 7 attack.
