Al Jazeera says journalist severely wounded, another has leg amputated after Israeli strike on Gaza

Al Jazeera says journalist severely wounded, another has leg amputated after Israeli strike on Gaza
Reporter Ismail Abu Omar's life is at risk after he had his right leg amputated, while doctors are attempting to save the left one, Al Jazeera said quoting an emergency physician. (X/@Palestinecapti1)
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Updated 13 February 2024
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Al Jazeera says journalist severely wounded, another has leg amputated after Israeli strike on Gaza

Al Jazeera says journalist severely wounded, another has leg amputated after Israeli strike on Gaza
  • The broadcaster’s bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh was wounded earlier, and his son and fellow journalist Hamza was killed last month
  • Reporter Ismail Abu Omar’s life is at risk after he had his right leg amputated

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera said Tuesday two of its journalists were severely wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
Reporter Ismail Abu Omar’s life is at risk after he had his right leg amputated, while doctors are attempting to save the left one, Al Jazeera said quoting an emergency physician.
Cameraman Ahmad Matar was described by Al Jazeera as being in a “serious condition” after being targeted by an Israeli drone in northern Rafah.
The two journalists have been admitted to the European Hospital, on the southern edge of Khan Yunis city.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the two were hit in a strike from an Israeli warplane in the Moraj area.
Hamas’s government media office said it “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation army’s targeting of the Al Jazeera crew.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike when contacted by AFP, saying only it would check the details of the incident.
Two other journalists with the broadcaster have been killed during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, while bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh was wounded.
His son and fellow journalist Hamza Wael Al-Dahdouh was killed when Israeli forces targeted a car last month, along with another video journalist, Mustafa Thuria.
The network’s cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed in a separate strike in December.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded the deaths of at least 85 journalists and media workers — 78 of them Palestinian — since the war erupted on October 7.


Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera West Bank office, order 45-day closure

Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera West Bank office, order 45-day closure
Updated 22 September 2024
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Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera West Bank office, order 45-day closure

Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera West Bank office, order 45-day closure
  • Israel’s military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist” allies of Hamas
  • Al Jazeera denies Israel’s accusations and claims that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.

DOHA: Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera said that Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order.
Israel’s government last week announced it was revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country, four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.
“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid Al-Omari, the network reported, citing the conversation which was broadcast live.
“I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said, according to the footage, which showed heavily armed and masked troops entering the office.
The broadcaster said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order.
Israel’s army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has had a long-running feud with Al Jazeera that has worsened since the Gaza war began following the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Israeli military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist agents” in Gaza affiliated with Hamas or its ally, Islamic Jihad.
Al Jazeera denies Israel’s accusations and claims that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.
The media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza condemned Sunday’s raid, saying in a statement it was a “resounding scandal and a blatant violation of press freedom.”

The Israeli parliament passed a law in early April allowing the banning of foreign media broadcasts deemed harmful to state security.
Based on this law, the Israeli government approved on May 5 the decision to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel and close its offices for a renewable 45-day period, which was extended for a fourth time by a Tel Aviv court last week.
The shutdown had not affected broadcasts from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, from which Al Jazeera was still covering Israel’s war with Palestinian militants.
Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim said the network’s West Bank office closure “comes as no surprise” after the earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel.
“We’ve heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau,” she said on the network.
“But we (had) not been expecting it to happen today.”
Bureau chief Omari said that “targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth.”
In May, the network condemned as “criminal” the ban on it operating over its coverage of the Gaza war.
“We condemn and denounce this criminal act by Israel that violates the human right to access information,” the channel said in a statement.
 


Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying

Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying
Updated 21 September 2024
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Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying

Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying
  • Restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones
  • Telegram heavily used in Ukraine and Russia since 2022 invasion

KYIV: Ukraine has banned use of the Telegram messaging app on official devices used by government officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes its enemy Russia can spy on both messages and users, a top security body said on Friday.
The National Security and Defense Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, presented the council with evidence of Russian special services’ ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement.
But Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council’s center on countering disinformation, posted on Telegram that the restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones.
Telegram is heavily used in both Ukraine and Russia and has become a critical source of information since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But Ukrainian security officials have repeatedly voiced concerns about its use during the war.
Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he has sold.
Durov was arrested upon landing in France in August as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on Telegram.
The Security Council statement said Budanov had provided evidence that Russian special services could access Telegram messages, including deleted ones, as well as users’ personal data.
“I have always supported and continue to support freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security,” Budanov said in his own statement.
After the decision was announced, Telegram issued a statement saying it had never disclosed anyone’s data or the contents of any message.
“Telegram has never provided any messaging data to any country, including Russia. Deleted messages are deleted forever and are technically impossible to recover,” Telegram said.
It said every instance of what it described as “leaked messages” had been proven to be “the result of a compromised device, whether through confiscation or malware.”
According to the Telemetrio database, about 33,000 Telegram channels are active in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who sits on the security council, as well as military commanders and regional and city officials all regularly publish updates on the war and report important decisions on Telegram.
Ukrainian media have estimated that 75 percent of Ukrainians use the app for communication and found that 72 percent saw it as a key source of information as of the end of last year.

 


IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building

IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building
Updated 20 September 2024
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IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building

IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building
  • Israeli forces are reported to have knocked over pedestrians after 10-hour assault on Qabatiya
  • Neither identities nor cause of death were immediately known

LONDON: The Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed they are “reviewing” a video which appears to show their soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinians from a building in the West Bank.

According to an Associated Press journalist on the scene and obtained video footage, the soldiers allegedly killed the three men before pushing them from the top of a structure in Qabatiya.

“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers,” said a statement from the organization.

No formal investigation has yet been launched.

The incident happened following a 10-hour military assault on Qabatiya, where Israeli forces reportedly knocked over pedestrians as they hurtled through the town in armored vehicles.

Israel claimed its troops killed four militants in the assault. However, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah reported only one confirmed death, with 10 people hospitalized.

This is the latest in a series of alleged violations by the Israeli military, with human rights groups expressing concern over excessive force used against Palestinians.

In the video, soldiers are seen standing on the ground while troops peer over the roof of the building before pushing a body over the edge. In a second instance, soldiers are shown swinging a body over the side by its limbs, and in a third the body is kicked to the edge before falling.

Photos captured by AP during Thursday’s raid show an Israeli army bulldozer near the buildings where the bodies were dropped. Other journalists at the scene also witnessed the bodies being pushed.

Neither the identities of the dead nor the cause of their deaths were immediately known.

The AP reporter who witnessed the raid said they saw a blindfolded and shirtless Palestinian man kneeling before an Israeli army jeep and armed soldiers.


Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award

Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award
Updated 20 September 2024
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Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award

Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award
  • Despite having been displaced repeatedly by relentless Israeli bombardment, Al Aila continues to cover the war in Gaza

LONDON: Palestinian journalist Shrouq Al Aila, who has been covering Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, is set to receive a 2024 International Press Freedom Award in November, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced on Thursday.

Al Aila, 29, is among four awardees who “have withstood extraordinary challenges to continue reporting on their communities while experiencing war, prison, government crackdowns, and the rising criminalization of their work,” CPJ said in a statement.

A journalist, producer and researcher, Al Aila assumed leadership of Ain Media, a Gaza-based independent production company, after Roshdi Sarraj, her husband and the firm’s co-founder, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October.

On Oct. 7, the Israeli military launched a bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip after Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel. The hostilities have so far killed at least 41,272 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the enclave’s health authority.

The onslaught has displaced more than 90 percent of Gaza’s population at least once, devastated the health, sanitation and water services, and annihilated entire residential neighborhoods.

Repeatedly displaced by the Israeli bombardment, Al Aila continues to cover the war and its devastating impact on Gaza’s residents.

Al Aila and her late husband Sarraj were on a business trip in Saudi Arabia when the war started in their hometown Gaza, prompting them to quickly return to report on the developments.

On Oct. 22, Sarraj was killed in an Israeli airstrike, and Al Aila swiftly assumed responsibility and headed their company, Ain Media.

Alongside Al Aila, CPJ’s International Press Freedom Awards this year will also recognize journalists Quimy de Leon from Guatemala, Alsu Kurmasheva who was detained in Russia, and Samira Sabou from Niger.


‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale

‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale
Updated 21 September 2024
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‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale

‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale
  • Former MP, channeling late PM Margaret Thatcher, insists ‘UK should always be open for business’
  • Zahawi’s comments part of exclusive Arab News interview to be broadcast this weekend

LONDON: Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi has criticized the UK government for blocking the sale of The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator to a UAE-led media company earlier this year, calling the decision “a terrible error of judgment.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Arab News for the season premiere of “Frankly Speaking,” Zahawi expressed disappointment at the decision.

“If Margaret Thatcher (had a say, she) would have said the UK should always be open for business.

“The way you protect particular sectors of the economy, if they require protection, whether it’s nuclear or media, it’s through regulation — good regulation — not legislation.”

The sale of the titles was halted due to government concerns over foreign ownership in critical sectors like the media.

Zahawi, who served as chair of the Conservative Party until January 2023, said he disagreed with colleagues who opposed the sale, especially given the growing economic ties between the UK and the UAE.

He said RedBird IMI, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s International Media Investments and US-based RedBird Capital led by former President of CNN Commercial Worldwide Rani Raad, deserved credit for securing what he called an “incredible sale” of The Spectator for £100 million ($133 million) to Sir Paul Marshall, a hedge fund tycoon and major investor in GB News.

Zahawi, who founded and served as CEO of market research firm YouGov, declined to comment on the ongoing discussions regarding the sale of The Telegraph and dismissed those who questioned his own possible involvement in a takeover.

“I won’t comment on a live commercial process,” he said. “Suffice to say that it would be an honor and a privilege to lead a great newspaper like The Daily Telegraph.”

RedBird IMI, which owns The National, Sky News Arabia and holds stakes in Euronews and other media companies, took control of The Telegraph and The Spectator in December 2022 after repaying a £600 million debt owed by the Barclay family to Lloyds Bank.

However, UK legislation passed in April aimed at curbing foreign state ownership of newspapers prevented the group from assuming full control.

In September, reports surfaced that Zahawi, who acted as a mediator between RedBird IMI and potential buyers, had allegedly approached former Conservative Party treasurer Sir Mohamed Mansour, an Egyptian-born businessman, to help finance his own bid for the broadsheet.

He was also reported to have held talks with the Reuben family, property billionaires with a stake in Newcastle United Football Club.

In the interview, Zahawi also reflected on his personal journey from Baghdad to the UK, sharing experiences of financial hardship, racism and political awakening during his time at university. He discussed his new book, “The Boy from Baghdad,” his views on the Labour Party, the recent riots in the UK and the country’s immigration policies.

The full “Frankly Speaking” interview will be available on Sunday on Arab News’ website and social media platforms.