Israel on Tuesday said it had killed an Al Jazeera employee in the Gaza Strip, accusing the journalist, Hussam Shabat, of being a "sniper terrorist" for Hamas.
The Qatar-based network said Shabat was killed Monday in an Israeli strike on his vehicle in northern Gaza, in an attack that media watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) condemned as part of a "massacre of journalists" in the Palestinian territory.
A joint statement from the Israeli military and Shin Bet internal security agency said that forces had "eliminated... a sniper terrorist from the Beit Hanun Battalion of the Hamas terrorist organization, who was also employed as a journalist by Al Jazeera".
Gaza's civil defense agency said Shabat was killed when an Israeli drone strike targeted his car on Monday afternoon, near a petrol station in the northern town of Beit Lahia.
Referring to Shabat, the Israeli statement said security forces had "in October 2024... exposed the terrorist's direct affiliation with the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization."
Jonathan Dagher, head of the RSF's Middle East desk, said in a statement that the accusations from last year "can in no way justify his murder, as they are based on documents that in no way constitute that the journalist had any affiliation" with Hamas's armed wing.
According to the Israeli statement, "internal Hamas documents" had proved Shabat had taken part in military training conducted by the militant group's Beit Hanun Battalion in 2019.
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.
RSF on Tuesday condemned what it called the "targeted Israeli strike" that killed Shabat, "one of Gaza's best-known journalists".
The media watchdog said it had previously "warned that the Al Jazeera reporter and his colleagues were at high risk of assassination".
"This all-too-familiar pattern fuels the unprecedented massacre of journalists happening in Gaza," said Dagher.
RSF said the Israeli army was "already responsible for the deaths of nearly 200 journalists in 15 months, including at least 43 killed while working".
Israel restarted intense air strikes across the densely populated Gaza Strip last week, followed by ground operations, shattering the relative calm afforded by a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
The Gaza Health ministry said Tuesday that 792 people had been killed since Israel resumed bombardments on March 18, including 62 in the past 24 hours.
Israel has repeatedly accused Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza of being "terrorist operatives" affiliated with militant groups and has suspended the network's broadcasts.
Al Jazeera denies the accusations and says Israel systematically targets its staff in Gaza.
With AFP
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