Israel has intensified its defensive operations in Gaza with a series of airstrikes targeting Hamas operatives, including a photojournalist who worked for Al Jazeera. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the death of Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah, a 25-year-old Gaza resident who was killed in a precise strike in the central Gaza Strip.
Hamas Operatives Posing as Journalists
The IDF revealed that Washah was a Hamas terrorist who posed a threat and served as an Al Jazeera photojournalist. He was killed along with two other Hamas operatives, including Sabai Zaher Abd al-Hamid Abu Hasna, a Nukhba commando in Hamas' military wing. The IDF said that Washah advanced sniper attack plans and additional terrorist activities against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera has long been accused of being cozy with terrorists, serving as a repository for al Qaeda hostage and beheading videos during the second Gulf war. The network has denied harboring terrorists and condemned Israel for targeting journalists whose reporting disagrees with it. However, Israel has provided extensive evidence that scores of supposed journalists in Gaza are actually terrorist operatives, including at least half a dozen Al Jazeera employees and more than 150 others.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group, has quietly removed multiple terrorists' names from its widely cited list of journalists killed in Gaza. At least six names that the CPJ deleted without mention include a member of Hamas' Jabalia Battalion, a terror combatant for Islamic Jihad, and a commander in the Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades.
Al Jazeera published a glowing obituary for Washah that omitted any mention of his Hamas membership and accused Israel of intentionally killing a working journalist. The obituary noted that Washah worked as a cameraman for Al Jazeera Mubasher and gained prominence during the Gaza war by accompanying and filming footage for his late brother, an Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent killed on April 8.