The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that an Al Jazeera journalist and another reporter who were killed in an airstrike in Gaza on Sunday were riding in a vehicle with a Hamas terrorist who was a drone operator.
Al Jazeera’s role in covering the war has been under scrutiny, as it airs anti-Israel propaganda — and cuts off Palestinians who complain (much to the surprise of Al Jazeera reporters) about Hamas.
In Washington, DC, the Al Jazeera White House correspondent routinely challenges Biden administration policy on Israel.
On Sunday, Al Jazeera reported that three journalists had been killed in an Israeli airstrike near Khan Younis in southern Gaza:
Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, has been killed by an Israeli missile strike in the western part of Khan Younis, Gaza.
Journalist Mustafa Thuraya was also killed in the attack, when the vehicle they were travelling in near al-Mawasi, a supposedly safe area towards the southwest, was struck by the missile. A third passenger, Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured.
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The Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemned the attack, adding: “The assassination of Mustafa and Hamza … whilst they were on their way to carry out their duty in the Gaza Strip, reaffirms the need to take immediate necessary legal measures against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity.”
Reporters Without Borders also condemned the airstrike.
But the IDF countered that the journalists were killed as they accompanied a Palestinian terrorist. The Times of Israel reported:
The IDF responds to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists in an Israeli airstrike the Gaza Strip earlier today, saying the pair, working for Al Jazeera, were in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone.
In response to a query on the matter, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit tells The Times of Israel that a military aircraft “identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft in a way that put IDF forces at risk.”
Al Jazeera said that Israel appeared to have targeted its journalists, but it has not explained what they were doing with an alleged Hamas terrorist, nor does it appear to have responded to Israel’s allegations at the time of this article’s publication.
Fighting is fierce at the moment in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, which is where Israel believes Hamas leaders are hiding underground — possibly using Israeli hostages as human shields.
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 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent 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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