IDF Chief Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari on Wednesday night presented evidence to prove that two Gazan journalists killed by the IDF on Sunday were terrorists.
Regarding Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh, Hagari said that Israeli forces had found Islamic Jihad internal documents in their various command centers in Gaza proving he was part of their terror ranks.
The IDF presented a copy of the document in Arabic, which it said listed Hamza as a dual-hat terrorist-journalist for Islamic Jihad.
The Jerusalem Post could not confirm what the document said, and there was no English translation, but the IDF said that it listed Hamza as working for the terror group's electric engineering unit.
Documents also said that Hamza had previously served as a terrorist battalion leader for the Zeitoun area of northern Gaza and that he was still currently responsible for firing Islamic Jihad rockets in that area.
IDF says there are documents that link journalist to Hamas
Hagari said that similar documents were found by Israeli forces in Hamas command centers linking the other journalist, Mustafa Thuraya, to Hamas.
He said the documents said that Thuraya was a deputy chief of a terror cell.
Further, Hagari said that both had been involved in activating drones which caused danger to Israeli forces and which led to the air strike against them.
On Sunday, Palestinian media reported that the son of the head of Al Jazeera in Gaza was killed by the IDF along with a photographer. IDF responses until Wednesday night had alternated from somewhat defensive to suggesting the two were terrorists, but without offering much evidence.
Al Jazeera has denied the two were terrorists and accused the IDF of illegally targeting Palestinian journalists, but had not publicly responded to the latest more specific IDF allegations at press time.