Al Jazeera has accused Israel of a “baseless fabrication” after six of its journalists were accused of being “terrorists”.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claims it has found documents and computer files proving that the six, who are all based in Gaza, have long-standing links to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
It has published what it claims are details of their training, military rank, salaries and even injuries that they sustained.
The IDF says these documents “serve as proof of the integration of Hamas terrorists within the Qatari Al Jazeera media network”. However, the documents have not been independently verified.
Al Jazeera, which is the only international news company to have staff permanently based in Gaza, has denied the accusations, defending the journalists and insisting that Israel is simply trying to block all coverage of its military operations in the north of Gaza.
The journalists named by the IDF are Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ismael Abu Omar, Talal Arrouki, Ashraf and Alaa Salameh.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Shabat described the documents as “false and against international law”.
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“The Israelis included me in this list because they are targeting journalists and influencers whose voices are being shared widely, particularly on the conditions in northern Gaza.
“I am not affiliated with any Palestinian militant group or wing. Me and my colleagues are independent journalists. We represent the voice of the people, and work among civilians to cover the Israeli army’s ongoing crimes.
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“The Israeli army is trying to stop the truth from getting out. It is trying to silence the north, to silence those who share the truth.
“I have lost family members already because they were targeted because I am a journalist. I carry guilt in my heart.”
Image: Hossam Shabat says Israel’s documents are a breach of international law
Tamer Almisshal is a Palestinian journalist who works as a presenter for Al Jazeera and insists the broadcaster is resolutely behind its reporters.
He told me: “Israel is targeting our journalists in the Gaza strip to stop them covering what is happening in the north.
“We consider these allegations to be baseless, unfounded and fabricated. We are the sole international media organisation that is reporting from Gaza because Israel has closed all the crossings that would allow journalists to get into Gaza. So we are the only people reporting from inside the strip.
“We consider that Israel has made these allegations to try to make the journalists too fearful to continue reporting, especially from the north where most of the casualties have been in the past three or four weeks.
“We still commit to maintaining the highest professional standards, and to keep going with our coverage from the ground.”
The IDF claims the documents show that the journalists had held roles including sniper, captain and training co-ordinator.
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‘Disturbed by IDF labelling journalists as terrorists’
It has denied fabricating any of the documents, saying the information was found on databases maintained by groups in Gaza.
However, while labelling the six as “terrorists” it has not provided any details of specific allegation of any activities.
Relations between Israel and Al Jazeera have been tense for years, with Israel accusing the Qatar-based network of being a mouthpiece for Hamas and Hezbollah.
In May 2022, Israeli forces shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Al Jazeera journalist, as she reported from the West Bank.
Image: The aftermath of an Israeli strike on northern Gaza this week. Pic: Reuters
Four Al Jazeera journalists have been killed following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza over the past 12 months.
In May, an Israeli court ordered that the network should stop broadcasting from Israel, the first time the country had ever closed down the operations of a foreign news outlet.
Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said: “I am deeply disturbed by this, and unfortunately it is part of a pattern by Israel, not just here but also in preceding conflicts, where they label journalists as terrorists but never produce any credible evidence.
“We are concerned that this is an attempt to excuse any future attacks on these journalists. We have looked at the documents they have produced and they don’t appear to be credible. But even if they were credible, they do not prove these individuals are active combatants, which is the only reason for targeting people. Journalists are civilians and must not be targeted in a war. To do so is a war crime.”
A large-scale Russian attack through the night into Sunday injured at least 11 in Kyiv and killed three people in towns surrounding the capital.
There were attacks elsewhere as well, including drone strikes in Mykolaiv, where a residential building was hit.
Image: An apartment building destroyed after a Russian attack in Mykolaiv. Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
‘Massive’ attack
In Kyiv, the city’s administration warned “the night will be difficult”, as people were urged to remain in shelters.
The city’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko described it as a “massive” attack.
He said: “Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working. The capital is under attack by enemy UAVs. Do not neglect your safety! Stay in shelters!”
It came after at least 15 people were injured in attacks the night prior.
Russia claimed it also faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday, and that it intercepted and destroyed around 100 of them near Moscow and across Russia’s central and southern regions.
Image: A municipality worker cleans up after a Russian drone strike on Kyiv. Pic: Reuters
Russia ‘dragging out the war’
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continued a prisoner exchange, marking a rare moment of cooperation in the war.
Amid the most recent attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his calls for sanctions on Russia.
Russia “fills each day with horror and murder” and is “simply dragging out the war”, he said.
Image: A resident looks at an apartment building that was damaged in a Russian drone strike. Pic: Reuters
“All of this demands a response – a strong response from the United States, from Europe, and from everyone in the world who wants this war to end,” Mr Zelenskyy added.
Every day “gives new grounds for sanctions against Russia”, he said, and each day without pressure proves the “war will continue”.
Ukraine, meanwhile, is ready for “any form of diplomacy that delivers real results”.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Image: Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Image: Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
Image: A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
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Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
Image: A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Image: Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.