Just as the IDF “uncovered” that employees of UNRWA were involved in October 7, only for the
WSJ report (where the story first broke) to be proven unsubstantiated,
the IDF has now accused the most prolific and well known journalists in Northern Gaza of being Hamas members, with some of the most outlandish job descriptions.
The journalists maligned are Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salameh, Hossam Shbat, Ashraf Al-Sarraj, Ismail Abu Omar and Talal Al-Arrouqi.
The IDF claims that, along with being Journalists that report daily:
1. Sharif was the head of a rocket launching division and a part of Al-Qassam’s elite Nuseirat Battalion
2. Salameh was the deputy head of a propaganda unit
3. Shbat was a sniper in the Beit Hanoun Battalion
4. Al-Sarraj was a member of PIJ’s Bureij Battalion
5. Abu Omar was training company commander in East Khan Younis
6. Al-Arrouqi was a team commander in the Hamas’ Nuseirat division.
While the accusations aimed at UNRWA were followed by Israeli attacks on aid convoys and resulted in the West cutting off life saving aid,
the IDF is using these unfounded accusations against the journalists, some of whom are in the besieged Jabalia, to not only
prevent coverage of Israeli war crimes, but to also
implicate Al-Jazeera as being the willing propaganda arm for Hamas. Such an accusation can be used as a pretense to further
restrict Al-Jazeera’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank, just as Israel had done in both May and September of this year.