Key points
- Israel alleges Al Jazeera journalist killed was Hamas’s “sniper”
- Hossam Shabat was killed in an Israeli strike
- Gaza’s civil defence agency confirmed Shabat’s death
- Al Jazeera has affirmed its commitment to pursue all legal measures
JERUSALEM, Palestine: Israel’s military on Tuesday said it had killed a journalist working for Al Jazeera in Gaza a day earlier, alleging that he was a “sniper” for Hamas.
“Yesterday, the IDF (military) and the Shin Bet (security agency) callously killed… an alleged sniper from the Beit Hanun Battalion of the Hamas, who was also employed as a journalist by Al Jazeera,” a joint statement from the military and security agency said, referring to Hussam Shabat.
Al Jazeera said Shabat was killed in an Israeli strike on his vehicle in northern Gaza on Monday.
The Israeli statement said the military and security agency had “in October 2024… exposed the journalist’s alleged direct affiliation with the military wing of the Hamas.”
It said “internal Hamas documents” proved he had allegedly taken part in military training conducted by the Beit Hanun Battalion of Hamas in 2019.
Israel kills journalists
An Al Jazeera alert on Monday said: “Hussam Shabat, a journalist collaborating with Al Jazeera Mubasher, was martyred in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the northern Gaza Strip”, referring to the network’s live Arabic channel.
Gaza’s civil defence agency confirmed Shabat’s death, saying he was targeted in an Israeli drone strike on his car on Monday afternoon near a petrol station in the northern town of Beit Lahia.
Israel restarted intense air strikes across the densely populated Gaza Strip last week followed by ground operations, shattering the relative calm of a six-week ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemned the Israeli Occupation Forces’ assassination of Hossam Shabat, Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent, who was brutally killed, in an air strike targeting his car in Jabalia.
Martyred journalists
Hossam joined the Network’s journalists and correspondents killed during the ongoing rampage on Gaza, including Samer Abudaqa, Hamza Al-Dahdouh, Ismail Al-Ghoul, and Ahmed Al-Louh.
Al Jazeera affirmed its commitment to pursue all legal measures to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes against journalists. And stands in unwavering solidarity with all journalists in Gaza and reaffirms its commitment to achieving justice and prosecuting the killers of more than 200 journalists in Gaza since October 2023.
Al Jazeera extended its condolences to Hossam’s family and called on all human rights and media organisations to condemn the Israeli occupation’s systematic killing of journalists, the evasion of responsibilities under international humanitarian law, and to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice.
