After exposing the involvement of six Al Jazeera journalists in terrorism and connections to terrorist groups, the IDF revealed additional documents indicating close cooperation between Hamas and the Qatari state-owned network, the military said on Thursday.
Cooperation ranged from prohibiting the channel from criticizing the terrorist organization to concealing incidents of failed launches and even establishing a secure communication line between Hamas and Al Jazeera, the IDF stated.
In a recovered 2022 document, Hamas described how it provided Al Jazeera with clear instructions on covering a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket launch in Jabalya, which resulted in the deaths of several civilians.
Instructions given to Al Jazeera by terror groups
The instructions included avoiding the use of the word "massacre" to describe the event, reducing the display of images from the incident, and ensuring that panel members did not criticize Hamas, the IDF reported.
Another document from 2022 reveals the instructions Hamas gave to journalist Tamer Almisshall regarding the coverage of PIJ during Operation "Breaking Dawn" on his program "More Hidden than Revealed." The instructions were to support the "resistance" in Gaza and to prevent any criticism of the PIJ's rocket capabilities, in light of the high number of failed launches.
A 2023 document shows that Hamas decided to establish an "Al Jazeera Phone"—a secure line that would allow the organization to communicate with the channel in a classified manner and during emergencies.
The documents reveal how Hamas directs Al Jazeera's media coverage to serve its own interests, preventing the public in Gaza and around the world from discovering the truth about its crimes against Gazan civilians.