The IDF and Shin Bet confirmed on Sunday that the hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv, who were rescued Saturday from Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip, were the ones held in the house of an Al-Jazeera "journalist" Abdullah Al-Jamal.
Despite what was initially believed, the fourth hostage recued on Saturday, Noa Argamani, was not held by Al-Jamal. He was killed along with several family members while trying to hold on to the hostages when the raid began. Jamal was a writer for the Palestine Chronicle and apparently continued contributing articles to that portal even while he was holding the hostages captives.
Video: Noa Argamani reunited with her family / Credit: Courtesy
"Journalist" Abdallah Aljamal was a Hamas terrorist holding Almog, Andrey and Shlomi hostage in his family's home in Nuseirat. No press vest can make him innocent of the crimes he has committed. @AlJazeera what's this terrorist doing on your website?" the IDF wrote on X.
Al-Jazeera issued the following statement in response to the allegations: "This man is not from Al-Jazeera, nor did he work for Al-Jazeera at all, nor is he listed as working for Al-Jazeera either now or in the past, and we do not know him, and all the rumors spread are empty of content and not true at all."
Amid escalating tensions with Qatar over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet voted unanimously to close Qatari television network Al-Jazeera's operations in Israel, after Israel's parliament recently passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered a threat to national security during the ongoing war against Hamas.
Qatar, which funds Hamas, has been accused by Israel of inflaming the conflict through Al-Jazeera's coverage, which Israel views as being sympathetic to Hamas. Al-Jazeera has denied any bias and vowed to maintain its reporting from the region.
