Are these six Palestinian journalists really terrorists?

The Israelis say their evidence shows that six reporters for Al Jazeera are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The Sunday National has probed the allegations, evidence presented by Israel and publicly available information about the six journalists, relying on Arabic-speaking sources in the region and archival material.

We make no claims to absolute truth other than what we have been able to confirm ourselves.

We have attempted to paint a fuller picture than that presented by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to give readers more insight than simply regurgitating state-sanctioned information.

Overview

Talal Al-Arrouqi, Alaa Salameh, Ismail Abu Omar, Hossam Shabat, Anas Al-Sharif and Ashraf Al-Sarraj are the Al Jazeera journalists accused of being members of Hamas or the PIJ.

Of the evidence presented, none suggests that any are current members of either organisation, both of which are considered terrorist groups by the UK Government.

While some are said to have been members of either group as recently as 2023, the documents published by the IDF do not give precise dates, meaning it is not possible to say whether they remain members of Hamas or the PIJ, if they ever were.

One local source said it was possible the men had been members in the past and said that it was not uncommon for Palestinians to join militias because they provide some of the few employment opportunities available in Gaza, where unemployment ran at 45% in 2022.

(Image: PA)

Official statistics showed that this was even worse for young graduates, with 73% of well-educated people between 19-29 out of work.

The source also highlighted what they said were inconsistencies or questionable assertions in Israel’s evidence. One journalist was alleged to have joined Hamas aged around 11, which the Sunday National was told was the Palestinian equivalent of having involvement in the Army Cadets.

We were also told the documents for another showed he was dismissed from the PIJ – meaning the IDF’s own evidence showed he was not currently a member of that group.

Ashraf Al-Sarraj

In the document published by the IDF, Al-Sarraj is listed has having been “dismissed” from the PIJ in 2023. It lists him as an “infantry soldier”.

In a video post to Instagram, which has been translated for the Sunday National by a Western Arabic speaker living in the West Bank, Al-Sarraj accused Israel of trying to “silence” him and claimed he had counter evidence that the Israelis did not consider him a terrorist.

He said that two months into the war, he had passed from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, passing through an Israeli checkpoint. He said that he passed through it after producing identification, arguing that this meant he was not on the IDF’s list of terrorists and was therefore innocent.

In the clip, he gives a rundown of his CV, saying he has been working as a journalist since 2018, working as a correspondent for Palestine Today TV in Gaza, before moving to the channel’s Lebanese offices before returning to Palestine and then joining Al Jazeera in March 2024. 

Talal Al-Arrouqi

In a video posted to Instagram and captioned in English by the account Translating Palestine, Al-Arrouqi denied being a member of Hamas.

In the IDF document, he is alleged to have joined Hamas at the age of 11 based on a date of birth of 1996. However, on a form Israel said gave a list of Hamas operatives in 2023, his date of birth is given as 1993. No explanation is given for the inconsistency.

In common with some others on the IDF list, the document alleging Al-Arrouqi’s membership of Hamas does not contain the group’s insignia, something a source said made them suspicious.

In his social media statement denying the allegations, Al-Arrouqi (above) called the IDF’s claims “lies”.

He gave a potted CV of his media career since 2016, which included past work at local radio stations, which he did not name. He also said that he worked at the Islamic University as a “broadcaster and programme presenter” and before that as a broadcaster with an “educational Quran station”. Al-Arrouqi said he has also worked as a voiceover actor.

Alaa Salameh

The IDF accused Salameh of being a “deputy commander of combat propaganda”. An Arabic-speaking source confirmed the IDF’s translation of his job description on a 2023 “list of Islamic Jihad operatives” as working on the “sound, screenwriting and directing department”.

They explained this would involve helping to make videos for the PIJ to share on social media.

The Sunday National has found records of Salameh (above) working with the medical organisation IMET 2000 Pal, where his primary role appeared to be training people to do CPR. On the organisation’s materials, he is cited as a doctor.

Posts on social media show that during the October 7 attacks, Salameh praised Hamas militants as “heroes”.

He used to work for Palestine Today TV, which was shut down by Israel in 2016. Its website currently displays official logos saying the domain name has been “seized by the United States Government”. However it appears to retain a presence online and runs a Telegram account, which is updated frequently.

In the past, it has rubbed up against Fatah, the organisation which runs the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is based in the West Bank. Hamas, its rival, controls the state in Gaza.

The US State Department noted in 2017: “On July 6, PA Preventive Security agents arrested journalist Jihad Barakat of Palestine Today TV, for taking a picture of the PA prime minister’s motorcade as it stopped at an Israeli checkpoint near Tulkarm, in the West Bank. Authorities charged Barakat with ‘being at a public place, at such time and in such circumstances for an unlawful or improper purpose’.”

Ismail Abu Omar

Abu Omar has previously been accused of being a member of Hamas when he was targeted in an Israeli airstrike in February.

However, Mohamed Moawad, the managing editor of Al Jazeera, told the Sunday National that Abu Omar is “working day on and day off” at the broadcaster’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

Moawad confirmed Abu Omar lost a leg in the bombing and said he was still receiving treatment for his injuries and that his “condition isn’t stable” but continues to work.

The IDF accused Abu Omar (above) of being a “platoon commander in the training unit” of Hamas’s Eastern Khan Younis battalion.

He filmed himself reporting live on the scene of the October 7 attacks, posting a video to his Telegram channel at around 9.30am that day. In the background, gunshots can be heard. The video is captioned: "Clashes from point zero in Nir Oz, east of Khan Yunis". 

Hossam Shabat

Shabat is a prolific journalist who has been covering Israel’s siege on northern Gaza in recent weeks.

The IDF’s documents say the 23-year-old was a sniper in a Hamas anti-tank battalion but does not give a date for his alleged enrolment.

The documents also said he undertook military training in 2019.

Shabat (above) set up a Telegram channel around 20 minutes after Hamas breached border fences and began the October 7 attacks.

Posts in the channel show messages – it is unclear who has sent them – which said that Hamas would “spread joyful surprises to our people and our Arab and Islamic nation”.

Another which is a quote attributed to Al-Qassam chief Muhammad Al-Deif reads: “Today, everyone who has a rifle should take it out. This is the time, and each one of you should take out his truck, car, or axe. Today, history opens its brightest and most honorable pages.”

Shabat has vehemently denied membership of the militant group, accusing Israel of a “blatant and belligerent attempt to transform us, the last witnesses in the north, into killable targets”.

He said that despite “untrue threats”, he and his colleagues “remain committed to our profession and will continue to report the facts on the ground as the genocide regretfully continues unabated”.

Anas Al-Sharif

Al-Sharif, 28, is alleged by the IDF to have joined Hamas on his 20th birthday in 2013. The IDF published his name in a Hamas “phone directory”, as well as an entry in a list of operatives and an injury tracking document.

The injury document purports to be from 2023 listing an injury sustained in an explosion in 2017 said to have cost him his hearing in his left ear as well as impairing his vision in his left eye.

(Image: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Al-Sharif (above) has also described Hamas as “heroes”. In a post on Telegram on October 7, Al-Sharif said: “9 hours and the heroes are still roaming the country killing and capturing…God, God, how great you are [three green heart emojis].”

Shortly after the accusations, Al-Sharif posted a selfie to Instagram showing him smiling captioned with a quote from the Quran regarding an episode where heretics who Moses has converted to Islam defy the Pharaoh with the words: “By the One Who created us! We will never prefer you over the clear proofs that have come to us. So do whatever you want! Your authority only covers the ˹fleeting˺ life of this world.”

The part quoted in his caption relates to the phrase: “So do whatever you want”, a defiant statement against earthly authority in favour of the divine.

In another post to his Instagram story, Al-Sharif called for “all human rights organisations, press associations, and international agencies to help counter these false accusations”.