Al Jazeera rejects Israel army claims slain journalists in Gaza were ‘terror operatives’
- Journalists Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were killed by a strike in southern Gaza on Sunday
- Israeli army says prior to the strike, the pair operated drones, ‘posing an imminent threat to IDF troops’
Al Jazeera staffer Hamza Wael Dahdouh and freelancer Mustafa Thuria, who also worked as a video stringer for Agence France-Presse and other news organisations, were killed on Sunday while they were on an assignment for the Qatar-based channel in the city of Rafah.
“Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns and wholly rejects – and indeed expresses its very considerable surprise at – the Israeli army’s false and misleading attempts to justify the killing of our colleague Hamza Wael Dahdouh and other journalists,” the network said in a statement.
“Hamza Wael Dahdouh was among a group of journalists from various media organizations (also including Mustafa Thuria) covering the IDF’s (Israeli military’s) devastating bombing … He, like so many journalists before him, was killed simply for doing his job,” Al Jazeera added.
On Wednesday the Israeli army said the two men were “members of Gaza-based terrorist organisations actively involved in attacks against IDF forces”.