The IDF confirmed on Sunday that a journalist and Hamas member had held captive in his family home three of the Israeli hostages liberated over the weekend. Abdallah Aljamal was a spokesperson for the Hamas-led Gaza Labor Ministry, according to the State of Israel’s official X feed (formerly Twitter). Aljamal also worked as a reporter, including prior work for Al Jazeera. Israeli civilian hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv were rescued from Aljamal’s family home in Nuseirat in a daring daylight Israeli rescue operation on Saturday. “Al Jazeera journalist by day, kidnapper by night,” said the Israeli X post.
While The Times of Israel reported that Al Jazeera denied Aljamal having ever worked for the news group, the IDF X feed posted a headshot and bio of Aljamal from Al Jazeera’s own website, describing him as a reporter who “often reports” from Gaza border protests. Al Jazeera’s website also includes a byline for Aljamal in a report from 2019. Said the IDF X post, “’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 incident further highlights the ongoing use of civilians by Hamas, including repurposing civilian-only locations for militaristic purposes. Schools, mosques, hospitals and civilian homes have served as bases of operations, weapons storage, rocket launching sites, and in the latest example, a makeshift prison for hostages.
The hostages were originally kidnapped in Hamas’ brutal terror massacre on October 7 in which 1,200 Israelis—mostly civilians—were killed and hundreds more kidnapped.
The revelation of Aljamal’s direct terrorist activity also comes as critics have verbally attacked Israel’s operation to rescue the hostages. One such lament was over the death of Dr. Ahmed Aljamal, whom The Times of Israel reported is the terrorist kidnapper’s father. As Israeli Ambassador David Saranga said in an X post responding to such a condemnation of Israel over the elder Aljamal’s death, “Yes- what a tragedy. Convenient that you forgot to mention that “Dr” Al-Jamal 73 held Noa Argamani, a female Israeli hostage captive in his home. He was killed during a special operation to rescue Noa and other hostages.”
While Hamas has been quick to claim large numbers of persons killed in the Israeli operation, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner noted in a Sunday post on X that Hamas—who has already exaggerated and manipulated casualty accounts in the past—isn’t trustworthy.
Wrote Lerner, “Yesterday, we rescued 4 Israeli hostages from the hands of one of the most barbaric terrorist organizations in the world during a highly complex operation in broad daylight. The number of casualties remains unknown at this stage. However, all statistics regarding human lives released by a murderous terrorist organization should not be trusted. The organization releasing information regarding civilian lives is the same one holding 120 Israelis hostage for the past 246 days. If you’re a journalist and don’t trust information from Wikipedia, why would you trust information from a terrorist organization?”
In response to the Israeli rescue mission, the official statement on Saturday from United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan posted to the White House website called the operation “successful” and said, “We commend the work of the Israeli security services that conducted this daring operation.” Sullivan later said in an interview with CNN that “innocent people” were among those killed in the raid, noting Hamas operates in a manner that puts civilians “in the crossfire, that holds hostages right in the heart of crowded civilian areas.”
The ongoing use of human shields by Hamas continues to be a key theme in the Israel-Gaza war. Even more disturbing is the participation in terrorism of Gaza “civilians”, like Aljamal’s family. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett summed up the trend in his own X post.
Said Bennett, “Unfortunately, many Gaza civilians have been taking an active role in terror. Thousands that participated in the October 7th massacres and rapes, and hundreds of thousands that provide their homes to Hamas as terror bases, ammunition storage and as a jail for Israeli hostages. This isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.
“Hamas’ core strategy is this use of civilians as weapons, and it’s what grows the number of casualties in Gaza. If Hamas is determined to kill Gazans, nobody can stop them. Only Hamas’ defeat.”
Or as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in comments published by his office after the rescue of the hostages, “We’re committed to getting the release of all the hostages, and we expect Hamas to release them all—but if they don’t, we’ll do whatever it takes to get them all back home.
“Hamas is committing war crimes every day, including the holding of these hostages. Our soldiers are performing in the most valiant and moral way to end this war with a victory against these killers and against these kidnappers, and we shall prevail.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, June 9, 2024)