The Israeli army on Wednesday accused six Al Jazeera journalists covering the war in Gaza of also being current or former paid fighters for Palestinian militant groups. Al Jazeera rejected the claims.
Israel cited documents it purportedly found in Gaza, and other intelligence it gathered, in making the accusations against the journalists, all of whom are Palestinian men. It said four are or have been affiliated with Hamas, and two with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Al Jazeera said the accusations were “fabricated” and “part of a wider pattern of hostility” toward the pan-Arab network. It said the claims were “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”
The Associated Press has been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the documents Israel posted online to support its claims.
Even if, and I say even if, these accusations are true: Gaza is supposedly not Israeli territory, so whether anyone is a former militant (meaning currently a noncombat) is none of their fucking business. Otherwise all but a small number of Israeli civilians would be valid military targets.
All the IDF reservists must be valid military targets then. And since almost everyone in Israel is required to serve in the IDF, including women, one could argue that there are barely any civilians in Israel nowadays. Imagine all the combatants working in hospitals, schools, universities, and so on. in Israel. Guess one can start bombing those facilities now without fearing they’ll ever harm civilians, right?