Following the Israeli rescue of four hostages in Gaza on Saturday, the Israeli military said three of them had been held in the home of a Hamas member, which it said showed the armed group was using civilian homes to protect its activity.
Israeli special forces, backed by the army, intelligence and air force, on Saturday stormed two buildings in a neighborhood of Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza, rescuing Almog Meir Khan, 22; Andrei Kozlov, 27 years old; and Shlomi Ziv, 41, of Abdallah Aljamal’s home, the military said. A fourth hostage, Noa Argamani, 26, was also freed, apparently from a nearby building.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 274 people were killed during the attack. The Israeli military said the death toll was below 100. Neither the Israeli military nor Palestinian health officials provided a breakdown of civilians and combatants killed in the attack.
Aljamal’s death was confirmed on Sunday by the Gaza Government Media Office, which said he had worked for the Hamas-affiliated Palestine Now news agency.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app: “Abdallah Aljamal and members of his family held the hostages captive in their home. “This is further evidence of the deliberate use of homes and civilian buildings by the terrorist organization Hamas to hold Israeli hostages captive in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel’s military has said for months that civilian casualties in Gaza are inevitable because Hamas hides its forces among the population.
However, the Israeli military appeared to backtrack on Monday from its post the previous day on Platform X, formerly Twitter, which implied that Aljamal was to Journalist for Al Jazeera, an influential news organization based in Qatar.
In that post, the military showed what appeared to be a screenshot of a photograph and a brief biography of Mr. Aljamal on the news organization’s website. “No press vest can make him innocent of the crimes he has committed,” the publication said, adding: “Al Jazeera: what is this terrorist doing on his website?”
Al Jazeera refuted the allegation on Sunday, saying that “these accusations are completely unfounded” and that Aljamal “had never worked” for the network. Rather, it said, he had contributed to an op-ed in 2019. A search of his firm’s Al Jazeera website shows an op-ed co-written in January of that year that compiles accounts from six Palestinians who had been detained in prisons. Israelis. News organizations frequently publish opinion pieces from non-staff contributors with whom they have no existing contractual relationship.
Al Jazeera is a major news source in the Arab world and has highlighted civilian suffering in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused him of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against his soldiers. The news organization has been under a temporary ban on operating in Israel since May 5, an unusual move that critics denounced as undemocratic and part of a broader crackdown on dissent over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
A 35-day ban on Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel was extended for an additional 45 days last Wednesday, after the Israeli cabinet agreed that Al Jazeera broadcasts posed a security threat.
On Monday, the Israeli military said it had no comment on Al Jazeera’s rebuttal, referring a Times journalist to its Sunday Telegram post, which identified Aljamal only as a member of Hamas. However, Israel’s Foreign Ministry continued to amplify the allegation that he was connected to Al Jazeera, republishing on Monday a report from The New York Post that cited the military’s Sunday publication about X.
It was not possible to independently determine whether the hostages had been held in Mr. Aljamal’s home and, if so, under what circumstances.
Since Abdallah Aljamal is a relatively common name in Gaza, it was also not possible to be sure that the person who wrote the op-ed was the same person whose house the Israeli military said was used to hold the hostages.
According to a preliminary estimate by the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed during Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which began on October 7 when Hamas launched an attack on Israel. He considers it an unprecedented cost for Palestinian journalists.
Israeli officials have said they believed some of those journalists were also members of Hamas, a claim that serves to cast doubt on the neutrality of some of the reporting by Palestinian journalists. Because foreign media are prohibited from entering the enclave outside of special tours closely monitored by the military, Palestinian journalists have become a crucial source of information about the development of the war and its impact on civilians.
Aaron Boxerman contributed reports.