‘Al Jazeera’ worked hand in glove with Hamas, captured docs reveal

Documents obtained by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip show substantial cooperation between Hamas and Al Jazeera, according to a report published on Monday.

That coordination extended to the existence of a secure phone line between the terrorist group’s military emergency operations room and the Qatari news agency.

“Qatar’s Al Jazeera gives Hamas a propaganda and psychological warfare platform. Hamas operatives, from rocket launchers to hostage takers, work for Al Jazeera. Terror propaganda is not journalism,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted to X on Oct. 21, including a link to the report, which was published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC).

During the Gaza War, Al Jazeera served as a key platform for Hamas’s propaganda and psychological warfare, from airing videos of kidnapped Israelis to broadcasting exclusive coverage of hostage handover “ceremonies.”

Hamas documents captured by the IDF prove that the cooperation between Hamas and Al Jazeera was “systematic, organized and continuous,” according to the ITIC report.

Hamas issued editorial instructions to Al Jazeera, ensuring its coverage aligned with the group’s messaging, via a secure line connecting Hamas to the network’s management in Doha.

Called the “Al Jazeera phone,” the line was for use in emergency situations to ensure that Hamas could control coverage, including “what to broadcast, what to conceal, and which terms to use during coverage to preserve Hamas’ desired narrative,” according to the ITIC report.

Al Jazeera’s language echoed that of Hamas. Throughout the war, its journalists described Palestinian terrorists as “resistance” fighters and “martyrs” after their deaths. Hamas attacks were characterized as “operations” while Israeli military responses were termed “aggression”—the same terminology employed by Hamas itself.

During and after the Oct. 7 massacre, Al Jazeera aired live footage of Hamas infiltrations into Israeli territory, much of it filmed by reporters linked to the group’s military wing. The network consistently broadcast Hamas statements and interviews with senior officials, serving as a de facto mouthpiece for the terror organization.

It also disseminated content produced by Hamas’s Combat Media Unit, including hostage proof-of-life videos and fabricated accusations of Israeli war crimes.

Recovered Hamas documents revealed “direct editorial coordination,” according to the ITIC report.

A 2022 memo instructed Al Jazeera to minimize civilian deaths from a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket and to prevent on-air criticism of Hamas. Another directed network journalists to coordinate with Hamas’s military before airing reports.

In one case, a Gazan who started to criticize Hamas was pushed aside and not allowed to finish during an on-air interview.

The documents show that many journalists who worked for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip were themselves Hamas terrorists. Some of them were among the forces that invaded Israel during the attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Al Jazeera, founded in Qatar in 1996, presents itself as an open platform for diverse opinions, but its coverage and editorial line consistently favor radical Sunni Islamist movements, particularly Hamas, according to ITIC.

Qatar hosts Hamas’s “external leadership” and provides the group with financial and political backing. It has used Al Jazeera to amplify Hamas propaganda and promote its narratives across the Arab world, according to ITIC.