Cairo.- The Al Jazeera Media Network described this Wednesday as “fabricated” the accusations of the Israeli Army against six of its journalists in the Gaza Stripwhom he accused of being “military wing agents” of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Qatari network stated in a statement that it “vehemently condemns the recent unfounded accusations made by the Israeli occupation forces against its journalists operating in northern Gaza” and considered that these “invented” events represent “a blatant attempt to silence the few journalists” that remain in the Strip.
Likewise, Al Jazeera denounced that these “unfounded accusations” arise after the network “exposed” possible war crimes committed by Israel during the war in Gazaand recalled that the Qatari channel is “the only international media that documents the humanitarian crisis” in the Palestinian enclave.
“Al Jazeera categorically rejects the description that the Israeli occupation forces they make our journalists like terrorists and denounces the use of invented evidence,” added the statement, which defended that its reporters “are simply fulfilling their professional duties.”
In this sense, he expressed his concern that these accusations “could serve as a pretext for a increased violence against journalists”, while recalling that in the last two years the Israeli army “has attacked and killed several” Al Jazeera informants.
Israel assured today that the documents found on these six Gazan journalists include “personnel charts, lists of training courses for terrorists, telephone directories and salary documents for terrorists”, something that for the Israeli State is “unequivocal proof” that the informants “act as military agents of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip”.
Israel’s accusations against the Al Jazeera journalists come after in the last three weeks Israeli troops have intensified their offensive in the north of the Strip, already causing more than 700 deaths, thousands of injured people trapped and tens of thousands displacedaccording to data from the UN.
Israel prevents ‘urgent medical evacuation’ of two journalists in Gaza: Al Jazeera
Yesterday, Al Jazeera denounced that Israel is preventing the “urgent medical evacuation” of two of its journalists who were seriously injured in Israeli attacks in the Strip two weeks ago.
The Qatari chain has been banned in Israel since last April, when the Government accused the chain of being “harmful to national security.”
On September 22, Israel also ordered the closure of the Qatari office in Ramallah, in the West Bank occupied, after storming the headquarters with soldiers where they seized and destroyed equipment.
During the raid on the office, soldiers tore down a poster of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered two years ago by an Israeli soldier while covering a military raid in the occupied West Bank.
Following the closure of the Ramallah office, the non-governmental organization Amnesty International accused the Israeli authorities of “another brazen attack on the right to freedom of expression” and of dealing a “crushing blow” to the freedom of the press.
Al Jazeera is one of the channels with the greatest deployment and journalists in the Strip, where the Israeli Government does not allow access to the international press.
