Journalist a ‘Hamas Operative’

A Gaza journalist who wrote for Al Jazeera was holding three hostages in his home with his family before he was killed by Israeli commandos during their daring rescue operation on Saturday, according to the Israeli military.

Abdallah Aljamal, who also worked as a spokesman for the Hamas-run labour ministry, was killed when special forces soldiers stormed his home in central Gaza and rescued hostages Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andri Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, the Israeli military said.

In a statement, they described Aljamal as “an operative of the Hamas terrorist organisation’’. He was killed, along with is 74-year-old doctor father, when the commandos stormed their home to free the Israeli hostages.

Aljamal’s death was originally reported by Rami Abdu, the head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, who claimed Israel Defense Forces soldiers raided the journalist’s home and killed him and several members of his family.

The IDF acknowledged that Aljamal was keeping the hostages inside his family home.

“This is further proof that the Hamas terrorist organisation uses the civilian population as a human shield,” the IDF said in a statement.

“Following checks by the IDF … it can be confirmed that (journalist) Abdallah Aljamal was an operative of the Hamas terrorist organisation, who kept the hostages Almog Meir, Andrei Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv in his family home.’’

Aljamal had previously written a column for Al Jazeera in 2019.

The Qatar-based outlet claimed Aljamal was never an employee. Aljamal was contributing to the Palestine Chronicle news outlet, where he wrote a plethora of stories covering the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s offensive. Many of his recent stories focused on the ongoing IDF operation in Nuseirat, where his own home was located, and where Israeli intelligence had figured out he was holding three of the four hostages rescued on Saturday near a refugee camp. The Palestine Chronicle is a non-profit organisation based in Washington State that works to provide daily news to Gaza.

The outlet claims that its team “consists of professional journalists and respected writers and authors who don’t speak on behalf of any political party or champion any specific political agenda.”

The organisation confirmed that Aljamal was a contributor reporting on the ground in Gaza, but made no mention that he was holding three hostages.

Along with the three men, Israeli forces also rescued Noa Argamani, the 26-year-old Israeli woman who became the terrified face of the October 7 terrorist attack, from a separate home.

Israel touted the rescue as a success, and estimated that there were “under 100” casualties as a result of the raid.

However, the Hamas-run ministry of health alleged that 274 were killed, including civilians. Both Israeli and American officials have blamed the casualties over Hamas’ tactic of holding hostages and munitions in civilian spaces.

“The Palestinian people are going through sheer hell in this conflict because Hamas is operating in a way that puts them in the crossfire that holds hostages right in the heart of crowded civilian areas, that puts military emplacements right in the heart of crowded civilian areas,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on CNN.

More than 36,000 people have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health, which does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians.