The Al Jazeera news network on Thursday has furiously denied "baseless" accusations made by the Israeli military on Thursday that its journalist Ismail al-Ghoul was a member of Hamas.
The accusation came after the Israeli military admitted it had killed him in a targeted airstrike on Wednesday. Ghoul and Al Jazeera cameraman Rami al-Rifi had been reporting from Gaza's al-Shati refugee camp that day. They were killed in a targeted strike that hit their car.
"Al Jazeera Media Network strongly refutes the baseless allegations made by the Israeli occupation forces in an attempt to justify its deliberate killing of our colleague, journalist Ismail Al Ghoul, and his companion, cameraman Rami Al Rifi," the broadcaster said in a statement.
"Furthermore, the Israeli occupation forces had previously abducted Ismail on March 18, 2024, during their raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, detaining him for a period of time before his release, which debunks and refutes their false claim of his affiliation with any organisation," it added.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets "struck and eliminated Ismail al-Ghoul, a Hamas military wing operative" whom they accused of taking part in the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.
"As part of his role in the military wing, Ghoul instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicising attacks against (Israeli) troops."
Al Jazeera bureau chief for Ramallah and Jerusalem, Walid al-Omari, rejected the military's accusation however, saying in a statement to journalists that "It is completely false".
"Al Jazeera rejects the claim and the lies and considers them a blatant attempt to justify targeting journalists in Gaza."
He said Ghoul had been previously detained by the army for 12 hours in March and then released "unconditionally".
"If their claims were true, would they have released him?
"It is clear that the occupation authorities are trying to justify their crime by claiming that he was one of the Nukhba [a term for elite Hamas fighters] and participated in the October 7 attack."
According to Al Jazeera, Ghoul joined the pan-Arab broadcaster in November 2023 and had, according to Al-Omari, dedicated "all his time and effort to covering the War on Gaza, documenting the Israeli forces atrocities in Gaza City and reporting the untold suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, proof that Ismail’s only profession was being a journalist."
Israel has consistently targeted journalists in its war on Gaza which, since 7 October, has killed more than 39,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children and left a further 91,128 injured.
According to Gaza's Government Media Office, 165 journalists have been killed in the enclave over ten months of war, a much higher death toll than in other conflicts.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the killing of Ghoul and Rifi, saying "Israel must explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike".
Israel has killed other Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza including Hamza al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's Gaza Bureau Chief Wael al-Dahdouh. He was killed alongside Mustafa Thuraya.
Wael al-Dahdouh was also injured by an Israeli airstrike while he was covering its war on Gaza and his cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed.
(Agencies contributed to this piece)