Al Jazeera dismisses Israeli claims on journalists' killings

Al Jazeera Media Network has refuted Israeli claims about the killing of two of its journalists, describing them as "false and misleading".

Hamza Wael al-Dahdouh, was killed on January 7, 2024, along with Mustafa Thuraya, another journalist. Al Jazeera emphasised that Hamza was killed "simply for doing his job".

The Israeli army claimed that the two were part of "Gaza-based terrorist organisations", yet did not provide any photographic or video evidence linking the journalists to these groups.

The families of the journalists have dismissed these allegations as "fabricated" and "false".

Al Jazeera expressed "considerable surprise" at these accusations, stating they "strongly condemned and wholly rejected" them. They asserted that Hamza and Mustafa were in fact covering the Israeli army's bombings, which killed ten Palestinians,  according to a statement the news network sent to Middle East Eye.

The Doha-based outlet accused the Israeli army of wanting to keep such events hidden from public view and condemned Israel's history of making "false allegations" and "fabricating evidence", particularly against journalists.

Hamza and Mustafa are part of a growing list of Al Jazeera journalists who were killed by Israel, both prior to and during the ongoing war.

In 2022, Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist with Al Jazeera, was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin, a fact initially denied but later admitted by the Israeli army.

Hamza's father, Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, had already lost several family members in an Israeli airstrike in October.Wael was also injured in an attack that killed his colleague, Samer Abudaqa.

Wael is a prominent figure in Al Jazeera's Gaza coverage, and Hamza was a well-known producer and videographer with over a million Instagram followers.

Al Jazeera has accused Israel of deliberately targeting Wael and his family.