DaysofPal- The Israeli investigative journalist Yuval Abraham revealed that the Israeli assassination of the journalist Anas Al-Sharif, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip, and the justification of his killing by claiming he belonged to Hamas, is part of a systematic Israeli policy through which the Israeli forces seek to grant “legitimacy” to targeting journalists in Gaza.
Abraham noted that killing journalists will ensure the world sees as little as possible of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza.
Moreover, Abraham said that after October 7, 2023, the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) established a special team called “The Legitimacy Cell”, consisting of intelligence operatives whose mission was to look for information that could be used to justify the Israeli crimes in Gaza, such as alleged failed rocket launches or the use of civilians as human shields.
He explained that this cell actively searched for Palestinian journalists in Gaza who could be portrayed as undercover Hamas members, but found none.
He pointed out that finding even one such case would provide media cover for killing all journalists, just as “Israel” justifies destroying an entire healthcare system by claiming that one hospital is a Hamas base.
Abraham confirmed that the Israeli forces follow a strategy of sowing doubt to justify atrocities, and that targeting Anas Al-Sharif was deliberate, citing the killing of four other journalists in the same airstrike, despite the Israeli forces admitting that Al-Sharif was the main target.
He noted that over the past two years, Al-Sharif carried out “methodical and courageous” journalism that documented to the world the genocide against his people, while much of the Israeli press normalized mass killing, starvation, and destruction.
Abraham described the Israeli media’s full adoption of the Israeli forces’ narrative about Al-Sharif’s death as “continuous professional betrayal.”
Furthermore, Abraham added that the Israeli forces presented documents claiming that Al-Sharif joined Hamas in 2013 at the age of 17, arguing that even if this were true, it would not justify his killing, otherwise, most Israeli journalists who served in the army would also be legitimate targets for assassination.
He linked the timing of Al-Sharif’s assassination to the Israeli plans to occupy Gaza City, stressing that his location had been known for months, and that the purpose of killing him was solely to silence his voice as a journalist exposing crimes, just as Israel has done with 230 journalists in Gaza since the start of the war, while preventing international media from entering so the truth remains hidden.
On Sunday evening, Israeli warplanes targeted a journalists’ tent near Al-Shifa Hospital in western Gaza City, killing 7 people, including the Al Jazeera crew: Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqa, photojournalists Ibrahim Zahir and Moamen Alweiwah, and the crew’s driver Mohammed Noufal.
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