The Israeli military has alleged that Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Wishah, killed in an air strike in the Gaza Strip, was a Hamas operative who concealed his role by working as a journalist.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said its forces had “struck and eliminated” Wishah, describing him as “a key terrorist in Hamas’ rocket and weapons production headquarters, who had been planning terrorist attacks against IDF soldiers operating in the area”. The military claimed he had “operated under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist, exploiting this identity in order to advance terrorist activities against IDF forces and the State of Israel”.

Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based broadcaster, condemned the killing as a deliberate attack on the press. It said Wishah, a correspondent for its Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, died when the vehicle in which he was travelling was hit in western Gaza. The network called the strike “a heinous crime” and insisted it was “not a random act but a deliberate and targeted crime intended to intimidate journalists”, holding Israeli forces “fully responsible”.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders also denounced the incident, saying Wishah’s death added to a mounting toll of journalists killed in Gaza. The group said his name joined “those of the more than 220 journalists killed in two and a half years by the Israeli forces in Gaza, at least 70 of whom were killed in the context of performing their duties”.

Al Jazeera has listed Wishah among at least 11 of its journalists killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the current war. The network says its staff have been repeatedly targeted despite clearly identified press markings and prior coordination of their movements.

Among those killed were correspondent Mohammad Salama, who died shortly before a fragile, US-backed ceasefire took hold, and four Al Jazeera employees and two freelancers killed in an earlier strike near Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Those deaths also drew international condemnation and renewed scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in the conflict.

Although a ceasefire is formally in place, sporadic violence and mutual accusations of violations persist. Al Jazeera has vowed to pursue “all necessary legal action” over the deaths of its staff, saying it will seek accountability for their killings and for what it describes as a broader pattern of attacks on journalists in Gaza.