During an operation at one of Hamas' bases in the northern Gaza Strip, a laptop belonging to a journalist for the Qatari Al-Jazeera network, Muhammad Washah, was found to contain photos and intelligence materials linking him to Hamas, IDF spokesman in Arabic, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, announced Sunday evening.
"In the morning a 'journalist' on the Al-Jazeera network and in the evening a terrorist in Hamas," Adrei posted on the X network.
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"From the findings on the computer, it appears that, in addition to his role as a 'journalist', Muhammad, born in 1986 in al-Burij, is a senior military operative in the anti-tank missile system of Hamas, and at the end of 2022 he moved to work in the research and development of aerial weapons for the terrorist organization," according to Adraee.
He added that "an intelligence analysis carried out on the computer includes photos linking subject to his Hamas activity. I wonder what additional details about additional 'journalists' we will find out in the near future."
At the beginning of last month, two so-called journalists named Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya were killed in an IDF attack in the Rafah area. The IDF stated that intelligence information proved that both were active in terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, which took part in promoting terrorist operations against the military forces.
According to the IDF spokesman, the two terrorist operatives used drones before the assassination in a way that caused a real threat to IDF forces. In response, the soldiers directed Air Force aircraft to attack the terrorists who were responsible for their operation. One of them is the son of the head of the Al-Jazeera bureau in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, who has often been photographed together with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
This is not the first time that a connection between terrorists and Gazan journalists has been proven. In the surprise attack on October 7, at least two journalists entered Israeli border communities with Hamas terrorists and photographed the atrocities with pride. One of them is Ahmed Najjar, who filmed several kidnappings together with the Nukhba terrorists. His house was attacked by air and since then he is in hiding and continues to broadcast and work.