Gaza: Journalism is a Capital Crime

The world is rightly outraged by Israel’s systematic extermination of much of the Gaza press corps.  Over 200 have been murdered since 10/7.  The assassinations began shortly after then and have continued unabated.

But what is less well understood is that decisions regarding who to eliminate aren’t one-off.  An intelligence officer doesn’t call up the IDF command and order such killings.  That would be far too straightforward.  The IDF is aware of the uproar against such killings.  They not only harm Israel’s standing, but they make it harder for global leaders like Donald Trump to offer the blanket support for Israel’s genocide.

In fact, the “intelligence” gathered, according to 972 Magazine, is passed directly to the US in order to soften the PR blows resulting from the wholesale murder of journalists:

Information gathered by the Legitimization Cell was also passed regularly to the Americans through direct channels. Intelligence officers said they were told their work was vital to allowing Israel to prolong the war…

“The idea was to [allow the military to] operate without pressure, so countries like America wouldn’t stop supplying weapons.”

The legitimization process starts starts with a research for “dirt” (often an invented claim ) which leads to targeting someone for actual murder. Yuval Avraham has detailed in his 972 Magazine investigative report: Israeli army unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas:

‘Legitimization Cell’: Israeli unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas

Treating the media as a battlefield, a secretive army intelligence squad scoured Gaza for material to bolster Israeli hasbara — including questionable claims that would justify the killing of Palestinian reporters.

It’s not hard to determine why the army assigns importance to such a project.  It has prohibited foreign journalists from entering Gaza or reporting on anything happening there. Thus, their media outlets must rely on Palestinian stringers (reporters, photographers, etc.) who provide on the ground coverage.  They are the backbone of all reporting on the genocide.  Their reports and images offer the world a window into Israel’s daily crimes.

The IDF must eliminate all traces of such coverage and those who provide it.  Remember that the definition of genocide includes the elimination of not only of people, but of the systems which underpin a society. Journalism is one of the most important.  Just as the Israelis systemically erase Palestinians through anticipated ethnic cleansing, they erase journalists.

Here is a summary of the process. The legitimization cells are tasked with identifying victims. They document the content of their reporting.  Then they scour social media for anything and everything the target has posted, seeking anything incriminating (by Israeli standards).  They then identify figures who will promote the message that the intended victim is a terrorist.  The sources may be social media influencers, journalists, etc.  IDF spokesperson, Avichay Andraee (more on his role below) served this role in the assassination of Al Jazeera journalist, Anas Al-Sharif.

To begin the public process of legitimization, it’s important to offer a justification (Hamas, etc. etc.) for the planned assassination.  Once the deed is done and the journalist eliminated, the army employs this information to smear the victim and thus obfuscate the crime.  The goal isn’t to prove the killing was justified, because that is almost impossible.  Rather, it is to confuse the world and deflect a portion of the outrage. It’s the equivalent of throwing spaghetti on the wall to see where it sticks.  If even a few strands cling to the wall, it will have been worth the effort.

The legitimization cells normalize murder.  That sounds ghoulish. But it’s a systematic program to eliminate journalism in Gaza. Avraham describes its purpose:

It has…been assigned to identify Gaza-based journalists it could portray as undercover Hamas operatives, in an effort to blunt growing global outrage over Israel’s killing of reporters — the latest of whom was Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, killed in an Israeli airstrike this past week.

…Driven by anger that Gaza-based reporters were “smearing [Israel’s] name in front of the world,” its members were eager to find a journalist they could link to Hamas and mark as a target [i.e assassinate], one source said.

In fact, the Committee to Protect Journalists said explicitly:

[It]…feared for Al-Sharif’s life, saying he was “targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign, which he believes is a precursor to his assassination.”

Al-Sharif presciently named the IDF spokesperson, Avichay Andraee, as his executioner:

“Adraee’s campaign is not only a media threat or an image destruction; it is a real-life threat,” al-Sharif told CPJ. “All of this is happening because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip harms them and damages their image in the world. They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally.”

Tragically, the IDF’s goal was not moral–but actual assassination.

Similarly, Bari Weiss put a target on the back of the Palestinian journalist-teacher-poet, Refaat Alareer with a tweet attacking him. In response, he tweeted that he would “blame” her if he was murdered, which is precisely what happened.  An Israeli security source confirmed to me shortly after his death that based on her tweet, the Israeli security cabinet had ordered the Shin Bet and IDF to find and eliminate him. It did, along with his sister and her four children.

Similarly, the Al-Sharif smear campaign escalated with three ominous videos from the IDF Arabic spokesperson:

أنس الشريف، إنكشفت حقيقتك وغيرك ممن يسمون في غزة بشباب تامر المسحال.

وثائق حماس التي تم العثور عليها في غزة والتي نكشف عنها اليوم لا تترك مجالاً للشك – أنس الشريف ناشط في الجناح العسكري لحماس.

قد تحاول تقديم نفسك كصحفي يتألم لأوجاع أهل غزة، لكن الآن الجميع يعلم أنك حمساوي… pic.twitter.com/UT3BJHzp1x

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 23, 2024

Translation:

Anas Al-Sharif, your true identity has been exposed, along with others who are called in Gaza the youth of Tamer Al-Masri. Hamas documents that were found in Gaza and which we reveal today leave no room for doubt – Anas Al-Sharif is an activist in Hamas’s military wing. You may try to present yourself as a journalist who suffers for the pains of Gaza’s people, but now everyone knows that you are a Hamas member by affiliation and occupation.

In case Andraee hadn’t made his point, he posted this and even a third video smearing al-Sharif:

دموع الحمساويين أمثال #سعيد_زياد و #أنس_الشريف ليست إلا دموع التماسيح التي تأتي في اطار مسرحية حمساوية كاذبة ومفتعلة. فجأة بدأوا جميع الأدوات والأبواق الحمساوية البكاء على الهواء مباشرة في تصرف اخواني متكرر بعد ان فشلت جميع الأدوات الدعائية للتغطية على وكسة حماس . هؤلاء لا يسمعون… pic.twitter.com/aUw0Fd7Zrr

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) July 20, 2025

Translation:

The tears of Hamas supporters like #سعيد_زياد and #أنس_الشريف are nothing but crocodile tears that come as part of a deceitful and fabricated Hamas play. Suddenly, all the Hamas tools and mouthpieces began crying live on air in a repetitive Brotherhood tactic after all their propaganda tools failed to cover up Hamas’s disgrace. These people do not hear the voice of conscience, nor are they moved by the call of faith or mercy.

@AnasAlSharif0 @saeedziad

Here Andraee waxes indignant at al-Sharif’s emotional reporting on a particular scene of carnage.  Human empathy is a capital crime:

فيلم اليوم من إنتاج هوليوود – فرع غزة، برعاية قناة الجزيرة @AJArabic وبدعم خاص من حماس الإرهابية: دراما مفبركة بطلها أنس الشريف @AnasAlSharif0 الذي ذرف دموع التماسيح في لقطة مدروسة بعناية…

بطولة العالم في التزوير والكذب والافتراء مستمرة بلا توقف. وغزة؟ نعم، تُعاني… لكن من… pic.twitter.com/LMf4aoOSfd

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) July 23, 2025

Translation:

Today’s film is a Hollywood production – Gaza branch, sponsored by Al Jazeera channel @AJArabic  and with special support from the terrorist Hamas: a fabricated drama starring Anas Al-Sharif @AnasAlSharif0 , who shed crocodile tears in a carefully staged scene… The world championship in forgery, lying, and slander continues without pause. And Gaza? Yes, it suffers… but from Hamas.

Note that affiliating a Palestinians with Hamas is a death sentence.  As numerous Israeli political and military leaders have said–it must utterly exterminate Hamas. If the IDF portrays a journalist as “Hamas,” then they no longer have any professional status.  Rather they are destined for elimination.

Often, as one can imagine given that this is the IDF, the intelligence is faulty. Sometimes laughably so:

 Ismail Al-Ghoul…was killed in a July 2024 Israeli airstrike along with his cameraman in Gaza City. A month later, the army claimed he was a “military wing operative and Nukhba terrorist,” citing a 2021 document allegedly retrieved from a “Hamas computer.” Yet that document stated he received his military rank in 2007 — when he was just 10 years old.

Either you believe Hamas promotes 10 year-olds to being a commander; the intelligence is false; or it didn’t exist. My money is on the latter. This is intelligence designed to support a pre-ordained conclusion: the worst kind of “intelligence.”  We saw that with Sadaam’s non-existent WMD.  It often has catastrophic consequences. Either a war and hundreds of thousands of dead in the case of Iraq; or the murder of Palestinian journalists.