MORE LIES FROM THE ANTI-SEMITIC AL JAZEERA

 Al Jazeera rebuffs Israeli claim killed journalist was Hamas operative

Al Jazeera has strongly rejected, external the Israeli military’s claim that its correspondent killed in an air strike in Gaza this week was a Hamas operative who participated in the 7 October attacks.

Harrowing video shared on social media showed Ismail al-Ghoul’s decapitated body after he was targeted in his car in Gaza City on Wednesday.

His cameraman, Rami al-Rifi, and a boy passing on a bicycle, Khalid Shawa, were also killed. 

While regional news this week has been dominated by other high-profile assassinations, many Palestinians have also focused on the killing of the locally prominent journalist.

In a statement on Thursday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) described Ismail al-Ghoul as a “Hamas military wing operative and Nukhba terrorist” - the assertion being he was part of an elite unit in the armed group.

It alleged that as part of his role he “instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicising attacks against IDF troops”. The IDF did not include Rami al-Rifi in its statement.

Al Jazeera called the accusation against its staff member “baseless” and said it “highlights Israel’s long history of fabrications and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes”.

Ismail's brother Jihad also told the BBC that his late sibling was strictly a civilian “portraying the suffering of the Palestinian people inside Gaza City to the outside world”.

Based in Gaza City, the reporter had become a regular face on the Qatar-based TV channel, which is a popular news source in the region but has faced intense criticism from Israeli authorities.

As Friday prayers in Gaza were dedicated to the late Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran, some Palestinians said they were also thinking about those who had been killed closer to home.

• Hamas leader Haniyeh buried in Qatar

“I am truly heartbroken about Ismail [al-Ghoul],” commented Maha Sarsak, who has been displaced from Shujaiyeh to the centre of the strip. “I was keeping up on the news in the north through him on social media. We didn’t always have a TV, but we could hear his voice on the radio.”

Journalists in Gaza laid down their flak jackets at one gathering to honour al-Ghoul and al-Rifi this week.

A friend of the pair said: “They hadn’t been sleeping for days nor eating. They had even lost a lot of weight.”

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1rwr8lj9jro