Evidence continues to emerge linking Al Jazeera journalists to terrorists in Gaza, as pressure grows within Israel to bar the Qatar-based network from the country for airing enemy propaganda.
On Tuesday, Al Jazeera issued a statement accusing Israel of deliberately targeting two of its journalists with a drone strike — referring to “Israeli occupation forces,” the preferred terminology of anti-Israel activists and terrorists:
Today, Tuesday, February 13, 2024, Israeli occupation forces targeted the Al Jazeera crew in the Mirage area, north of Rafah, by a drone, seriously injuring Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar, which led to the amputation of his leg and the serious injury of photojournalist Ahmed Matar.
Al Jazeera Media Network confirms that targeting of the reporter Ismail and the photographer Ahmed is a full-fledged crime added to Israel’s crimes against journalists, and a new part in the series of the deliberate targeting of Al Jazeera’s journalists and correspondents in Palestine.
The Times of Israel noted that Ismail Abu Omar has been suspected of accompanying Hamas terrorists in their brutal attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, during which a quarter of the residents were murdered or abducted.
On Sunday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arabic spokesman Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee revealed that a laptop computer recovered in Gaza contained evidence that an Al Jazeera journalist was also a Hamas terrorist commander:
The Times of Israel noted:
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, says that several weeks ago, troops found a laptop in a Hamas base in northern Gaza, which belongs to a man by the name of Mohamed Washah.
Washah, from central Gaza’s Buriej, has been featured in Al Jazeera broadcasts in recent months, with the Qatari-owned station calling him one of their journalists.
Adraee says that evidence recovered from the laptop reveals that Washah is also a “prominent commander” in Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit, and in late 2022, he began to work in research and development for the terror group’s air unit.
As Breitbart News reported in January, the IDF reported that an Al Jazeera freelancer who had been killed in an airstrike was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and had been killed while riding with a terrorist drone operator.
Israel’s legislature has advanced a bill to allow the government to ban Al Jazeera, though the government has hesitated to do so — partly because of a commitment to press freedom, and also because Al Jazeera occasionally (if inadvertently) reports the truth about Palestinian anger at Hamas and its sponsors.
Update: On Wednesday, the IDF said that Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Abu Omar was a deputy commander within Hamas:
Yesterday (Tuesday), the Al Jazeera news network reported that one of their journalists was injured during an IDF strike in the southern Gaza Strip.
Ismail Abu Omar, the journalist that the Al Jazeera news network reported about, is a deputy company commander in Hamas’ Eastern Battalion of Khan Yunis. Abu Omar even filmed himself in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7th massacre and published it on social media platforms.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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