Al Jazeera Journalist Killed In Gaza, Israel Says He Was 'Hamas Terrorist'
Al Jazeera Journalist Killed In Gaza, Israel Says He Was 'Hamas Terrorist' Published By, Last Updated: June 21, 2026, 09:12 IST The Israeli military confirmed
Al Jazeera Journalist Killed In Gaza, Israel Says He Was 'Hamas Terrorist' Published By, Last Updated: June 21, 2026, 09:12 IST The Israeli military confirmed carrying out the strike and also claimed that the killed journalist was a Hamas operative. Tents shelter displaced families after the destruction of infrastructure and homes belonging to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families made homeless during Israeli military bombardments since 2023, in Gaza City on June 20, 2026. (AFP) Israeli strikes in Gaza on Saturday killed at least six people, including two children and a cameraman with broadcaster Al Jazeera, AP reported. However, the Israeli military claimed the journalist was also a member of Hamas’s military wing. In a statement, Al Jazeera said that Ahmed Wishah, a cameraman working for the network, was killed when an Israeli strike hit a house in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. According to the broadcaster, the attack was carried out by a drone and also left several people wounded.
The network described Wishah as the latest member of its media team to be killed during the ongoing war in Gaza. The Israeli military confirmed carrying out the strike but said Ahmed Wishah was a Hamas operative. “Ahmed Wishah, who was a Hamas terrorist," was targeted in the operation, an Israeli military spokesman told AFP, without providing evidence to support the allegation. In a later statement, the military said Wishah was killed in a “precise strike" alongside two other Hamas militants. It alleged that he had served as a sniper operative in Hamas’s military wing while also working as a photojournalist for Al Jazeera. “Alongside his work as an Al Jazeera photojournalist in recent years, Wishah was an operative in Hamas’ military wing," the military said. The Israeli military further claimed that Wishah had recently been involved in planning sniper attacks and other activities targeting Israeli troops operating in Gaza. It said he was eliminated because of what it described as an immediate threat to Israeli forces.
No evidence was provided publicly to substantiate the claims. Al Jazeera noted that Ahmed Wishah’s brother, Mohammed Wishah, who also worked for the broadcaster, was killed in April. The network said Mohammed died in Israeli shelling while travelling in his vehicle. Following Mohammed Wishah’s death, media rights organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Israeli forces had killed more than 220 journalists since the Gaza war began in October 2023. According to RSF, at least 70 of those journalists were killed while carrying out their professional duties. The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to a large-scale Israeli military campaign in the Palestinian territory. Israel has repeatedly maintained that it does not deliberately target journalists. However, since the start of the conflict, the military has on several occasions said that individuals working in the media were also members of Palestinian militant groups and were targeted on that basis. The killing of Ahmed Wishah is likely to renew scrutiny over journalist safety in Gaza, where media organisations and rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the high number of reporters and media workers killed during the conflict.
The BriefWire