Israel says Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul who they killed was leader of a Hamas battalion when 10 years old. [View all]

Israel is wiping out Gaza’s journalists – and it’s no longer even hiding it

Israel denies it deliberately targets journalists. But the evidence shows otherwise. To date, Israel has provided no independently verifiable evidence that any of the journalists whom it has admitted deliberately targeting were terrorists. In one case, that of the Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul, the documents produced allegedly showed that al-Ghoul became the leader of a Hamas battalion – when he was 10 years old. The documents Israel has shared on al-Sharif, which it posted on X, show al-Sharif as receiving a Hamas salary in 2023. The documents do not provide evidence that he was an active member of the terrorist group although Israel said it had “current intelligence” – which it did not publish – indicating al-Sharif was an active Hamas military wing operative.