Hamas directed Al Jazeera’s coverage of Gaza, instructed outlet to avoid certain terms

Hamas also attempted to establish a direct line to Al Jazeera’s office in Doha.

By Jameson Mitrovich, The Washington Free Beacon

Hamas conspired with Qatari-funded news network Al Jazeera to downplay dissent within Gaza and avoid coverage that could damage “the image of the resistance,” according to documents recovered from the strip and released by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

Hamas, for example, instructed Al Jazeera to avoid using terms like “massacre” to describe a Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile strike in Jabalia, Gaza, that landed in a refugee camp.

Al Jazeera’s “newsroom management” agreed to the directive, the documents show.

Hamas also attempted to establish a direct line to Al Jazeera’s office in Doha—where Qatar also houses Hamas terrorists—”to promote coverage in emergency situations and allow Hamas’s military wing to send real-time instructions on what to broadcast and what to embargo,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

Al Jazeera is known to use Hamas’s preferred terminology, referring to living Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” and dead ones as “shaheeds,” or “martyrs who died for Allah.” It has also called Israeli hostages “prisoners.”

Hamas has given Al Jazeera unprecedented access to its underground terror tunnel system, allowing the network to release a documentary on that system in 2014.

In the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Al Jazeera filmed Hamas terrorists rigging a tunnel with a booby trap.

It’s unclear whether Al Jazeera will maintain such a tight relationship with Hamas going forward.

Qatar, under pressure from President Donald Trump, reportedly pushed the network to reduce its “incitement” to terror throughout the Middle East as part of negotiations over Trump’s Gaza peace plan.