A day after an Israeli air strike killed a noted Al Jazeera journalist and his cameraman, the Israeli army acknowledged killing the reporters — and indicated the strike was purposeful.
Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed by an Israeli airstrike Wednesday, shortly after reporting from the destroyed home of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas’ political wing, who had earlier in the day been assassinated in Iran.
Graphic video of the scene of the airstrike shows al-Ghoul was wearing a blue vest reading, “PRESS,” when he was killed. Both al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were wearing press vests and their vehicle carried “identifying signs,” Al Jazeera reported. Multiple reports indicated a nearby child was also killed in the strike.
In a tweet on Thursday, the Israeli military indicated it had purposefully targeted the journalist, claiming without evidence that al-Ghoul was a “terrorist” and a member of Hamas’ military wing.
“🔴ELIMINATED: Ismail al-Ghoul, a Hamas Military Wing operative, Nukhba terrorist and @AJEnglish journalist,” read the Israel Defence Forces’ post on X (formerly Twitter).
The post further asserted, without evidence: “As part of his role in the military wing, Al-Ghoul instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicising attacks against IDF troops. His activities in the field were a vital part of Hamas’ military activity. The IDF and ISA will continue to operate in order to eliminate terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre.”
“We have no further comment than what has already been said,” an IDF spokesperson told HuffPost in an email on Thursday.
Al-Ghoul had been covering the war in Gaza since November. In March, he reported that he and other journalists had been arrested by Israeli soldiers during the Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. They were then stripped, handcuffed, blindfolded and interrogated over several hours, according to al-Ghoul; witnesses said he was severely beaten. Al-Ghoul reported being detained for about 12 hours.
Among other questions, the IDF spokesperson did not answer why Israeli forces had released al-Ghoul in March if he was supposedly a military operative of Hamas.
In a statement on Thursday, Al Jazeera repeated its earlier condemnation of Israel’s killing of al-Ghoul and al-Rifi, noting that the decision to release al-Ghoul in March “debunks and refutes their false claim of his affiliation with any organisation.”
“The Network condemns the accusations against its correspondent, Ismail Al Ghoul, without providing any proof, documentation or video, and highlights Israel’s long history of fabrications and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes, while also denying journalists from around the world access to the Gaza Strip to report on the deteriorating humanitarian conditions and the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza,” the statement said.
Al Jazeera called for an independent international investigation into “the brutal and heinous crimes” committed by Israeli forces against its journalists and staff, and noted that it “reserves its right to pursue all legal actions.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called the war in Gaza the deadliest period for journalists since the nonprofit began recording data in 1992.
Since October 7, CPJ has confirmed that 108 Palestinian journalists have been killed, in addition to two Israeli and three Lebanese journalists. Fifty-two journalists have been reported arrested, 32 have been reported injured, and two have been reported missing, CPJ said Thursday, noting there are “numerous” other reports under investigation.
Palestinian officials put the number of Palestinian journalists killed at over 160. Multiple journalists have been directly targeted by Israeli forces, CPJ’s president, Jodie Ginsberg, told Al Jazeera.
“Documenting a war isn’t terrorism, it’s journalism,” the Freedom of the Press Foundation said in response to the Israeli military’s post on Thursday.
“If the @IDF can prove al-Ghoul was working for Hamas’ military, it should do so immediately,” the post added. “If not, this looks like a flimsy excuse for intentionally murdering a journalist from an outlet Israel dislikes.”
Thursday marked the 300th day of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which started when Hamas and other Palestinian militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages into Gaza.
Nearly 39,500 Gazans have been killed since hostilities began, according to Palestinian officials.
Israeli government officials have a track record of accusing journalists of being militants. In November, top Israel officials amplified allegations that Palestinian journalists were participants or accomplices in the October 7 attack — only for the source of the allegations, the group HonestReporting, to walk back its claims, saying it was just “raising questions.”