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How Israel Lost a Battle to Al Jazeera — and How It Must Do Better Next Time
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
If you are going to kill someone famous, be prepared to justify your actions.
On July 31, an Israeli airstrike killed Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul along with his cameraman and a 17-year-old bystander. The strike came in broad daylight, and footage of al-Ghoul’s decapitated body began to circulate on social media. A wave of stories reported the death of another journalist in Gaza. The Israeli military had no comment.
The next day, the IDF released a statement on social media asserting that Ghoul was a Hamas military operative and part of the Nukhba force that carried out the October 7 massacre.
Surging global media coverage took note of the Israeli statement, but its emphasis remained on the tragic death of a young reporter who left behind a widow and one-year-old daughter. After two additional days, the IDF returned to social media, posting an image of a captured Hamas spreadsheet from 2021 that identified Ghoul as an operative, along with his rank, specialty, and official ID numbers. But the news cycle had moved on.
If the story ended there, the lesson would be straightforward: The IDF should have a dossier of declassified intelligence ready to publicize the moment it strikes a Hamas terrorist with a high-profile civilian day job.
Yet in the case of Ismail al-Ghoul, it is not classified documents, but his own social media posts that provide much of the relevant information about his attachment to Hamas.
The journalists who covered Ghoul’s demise clearly did not conduct basic due diligence. Yet the IDF shares responsibility; Israeli intelligence should pay close attention to its targets’ social media activity.
The first clue that Ghoul’s social media deserved closer scrutiny was his decision to open a series of new accounts — and delete or suspend the old ones — shortly after he began working for Al Jazeera during the first weeks of the fighting in Gaza. He created a new Instagram account in November, as well as a new Telegram channel. Next came a new Facebook page in December, and a second new page in January. That same month, he launched two new X accounts and one on TikTok. In February, he launched another Telegram channel.
The names of these new accounts incorporated some version of Ghoul’s name along with the number two, suggesting they were successors to an earlier account.
For example, he chose “ismail_gh2” as the handle for both his Instagram account and one of the two on X. The former now has more than 650,000 followers, while the latter has more than 100,000. One of the two Facebook pages has another half million followers while more than 45,000 users follow him on Telegram. If nothing else, this should have made it clear to the IDF that they were dealing with a target whose death could have a major political impact.
Although Ghoul disabled his original account on X, most of its contents remain available thanks to the Internet Archive.
Eitan Fischberger, an Israel army veteran turned media analyst, examined Ghoul’s posts in March. In a post from April 2020, the second month of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ghoul opined that the real disease is “the Israeli entity and every Arab trying to normalize it,” adding the hashtag #COVID48, a reference to the year of Israel’s founding.
In July of that year, Ghoul tweeted a graphic celebrating young Palestinians’ use of “alternative tools” against Israelis: knives, axes, rocks, and Molotov cocktails.
Yet the most important piece of information to glean from Ghoul’s old X account is the fact that he previously worked for two other media outlets — Felesteen and al-Resalah — both aligned with Hamas.
Felesteen debuted in May 2007, becoming Palestinians’ fifth daily newspaper. Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader recently assassinated in Iran, spoke at a pre-launch reception for Felesteen. An interview with Haniyeh was the centerpiece of its first edition. The Associated Press, which covered the publication’s debut, described it as “a 24-page newspaper catering largely to Hamas supporters and seen as an attempt by the Islamic militant group to increase its influence.”
The precise nature of Ghoul’s work at Felesteen and al-Resalah is not clear; his name does not appear on old bylines. Yet both publications lionize Hamas.
In a brief article on August 7, 2024, al-Resalah reported the selection of Yahya Sinwar as Hamas’ new leader while noting the “brave, wise, and open-minded leadership” of Ismail Haniyeh, Sinwar’s late predecessor. During his time at al-Resalah, Ghoul said an Israeli soldier shot him, injuring his hand with shrapnel, while he was covering protests at the Gaza-Israel border in 2018.
Despite Ghoul’s reinvention of his social media presence during the current war, he chose to leave intact his personal Facebook profile, which remains public. The clearest indication of his disposition toward Hamas is a photo he posted in 2021, showing Yahya Sinwar sitting defiantly in the ruins of his Gaza home.
Ghoul said of Sinwar, “May Allah protect you.” Ghoul also left no doubt that he celebrated violence. In September 2023, he reposted another well-known image, this one of Palestinian teenager Basel al-Shawamrah, who stabbed two Israelis outside the Jerusalem Central Bus station. A photographer captured Shawamra grinning contentedly while lying on a stretcher after he was shot. Ghoul captioned the photo “The Smile of Victory.” On numerous occasions, Ghoul shared photos of rocket fire from Gaza, calling the rockets “the pride of local industry.”
According to the IDF, two of Ghoul’s cousins were also Hamas operatives. In February, the IDF announced the death of Ahmed al-Ghoul, commander of the Shati Battalion, “who participated in the massacre on October 7” and later held one of the Israeli hostages, Cpl. Noa Marciano, whose remains were later found near al-Shifa hospital.
In May, a second announcement reported the death of Naim al-Ghoul, a fighter in the Shati Battalion, who also held Marciano before her death. Ismail al-Ghoul posted photos of himself at his cousin’s funeral, shovel in hand, wearing a blue flak jacket displaying the English word “PRESS” in large capital letters. Ghoul described his cousin as “a man of humanity who continued to perform his humanitarian duty sincerely.”
One source of support Ghoul could rely on was his wife, who posted many verses in honor of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
During the clash the IDF calls Operation Protective Edge, she wrote to the Qassam fighters, “May God protect you, make you steadfast and be with you.” Above a photo of a Palestinian fighter she posted, “Fire your guns, don’t be merciful.” Her timeline also includes commemorations of fighters such as Yahya Ayyash, the bombmaker who equipped many suicide operatives in the 1990s.
She also denounced Palestinians who reject Hamas as agents of the Jews. Above a photo of Jews dancing in Jerusalem on the anniversary of the IDF’s reclaiming the city in 1967, Ghoul’s wife lamented, “Is there a more hideous sight than this?”
None of this material on Facebook amounts to evidence that Ghoul was a Hamas military operative. Nor do expressions of support for Hamas, nor even justifications of its violence, render Ghoul a legitimate military target. Yet they show he was an extremist and belie the post-mortem claims by Al Jazeera that Ghoul was a model journalist. The network’s managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, wrote, “Ismail was renowned for his professionalism and dedication, bringing the world’s attention to the suffering and atrocities committed in Gaza.”
Did the network know of Ghoul’s support for Hamas when it hired him? His previous work on behalf of Felesteen and al-Resalah would have made his affinity obvious. A review of Ghoul’s social media would not have required much effort. Had the IDF prepared a suitable dossier with selections from Ghoul’s postings, it might have turned the tables on Al Jazeera, pushing Western journalists to press the network for answers. Instead, Western media uncritically reprinted testimonials to Ghoul from admiring colleagues.
While the news cycle has passed, the IDF should nevertheless commit the manpower necessary to produce a full dossier on Ghoul, including both declassified intelligence and publicly available material. There is a tendency for past incidents to become the subject of intense re-litigation. In January, an Israeli airstrike killed two of Ghoul’s colleagues at Al Jazeera, Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya. Three days later, the IDF released a screenshot of what it said was a personnel roster from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas partner, showing that Dahdouh belonged to an electronic engineering unit. Two months later, The Washington Post published a detailed investigation asserting the innocence of Dahdouh and Thuraya, while casting doubt on the document shared by the IDF. In response to inquiries from the Post, the IDF simply responded, “We have nothing to add.”
While the IDF may question the fairness of the Post’s coverage, its non-response amounts to unilateral disarmament. When the re-litigation of Ghoul’s death begins, the IDF should be better prepared. For instance, it should be able to demonstrate the authenticity of the spreadsheet listing Ghoul as a Hamas operative. On its own, the document has shortcomings. For example, there is a column that lists the “Date of military rank” for each of the individuals listed. Yet in the case of Ghoul and many others, this date precedes the “Date of recruitment” by several years.
Other parts of the document hold up better under scrutiny. One column provides a nine-digit ID for each individual. All of these have the correct format for the numbers that the Israeli Ministry of the Interior assigns to Palestinians. Five of the 33 names in the document also appear on the Gaza Health Ministry’s list of the dead. Of those, two reportedly died on October 7, according to a Palestinian NGO that tracks fatalities.
Four of the names on the spreadsheet belong to individuals that Ghoul’s Facebook account lists as friends. One is Samer Balawi, who has not posted on Facebook since May, yet his final post shows him standing side by side with Ghoul, both smiling. It reveals little about their relationship, but underscores the importance of synthesizing information from open source and classified materials.
While the IDF may have lost the battle with Al Jazeera that followed Ghoul’s death, the battle is not the war. The question is whether the IDF will learn from this setback and be better prepared for the next round.
David Adesnik is a senior fellow and director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
The post How Israel Lost a Battle to Al Jazeera — and How It Must Do Better Next Time first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Moroccan Tourist With US Green Card Carries Out Stabbing Attack in Tel Aviv, Wounding 4
Israeli police officers respond after a Moroccan national with a US green card carried out a stabbing attack in central Tel Aviv on Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpaare/dpa via Reuters Connect
A Moroccan national with a US green card, who entered Israel three days ago, carried out a stabbing attack in central Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, wounding at least four people before being shot and killed by an off duty border guard.
Abdelaziz Kaddi, 29, was found with a permanent US resident card after a female officer shot and killed him. According to Israeli reports, he entered Israel on Jan. 18 with a tourist visa with the intention to carry out a terrorist attack. It was later revealed that he had a history of inciting posts on social media.
The off duty border guard who killed Abdelaziz Kaddi after he carried out a stabbing attack in central Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 21, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of volunteer police officer Rani Shilat
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel disclosed that Israeli immigration officials had initially raised concerns about the suspect upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport. The Population and Immigration Authority, Arbel said, identified Kaddi as a potential risk and recommended denying his entry.
Border officials at Ben Gurion Airport reported that Kaddi was unable to provide clear details about the purpose of his visit to Israel, including who he was meeting or whether he intended to work in the country. Following his initial questioning, authorities denied him entry and referred him to the Shin Bet security agency for further review. Despite the initial concerns, security officials ultimately decided to grant him entry after conducting their own assessment.
“I urge Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar to thoroughly investigate this incident and implement necessary measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future,” Arbel said in a statement.
In response to Arbel’s remarks, the Shin Bet stated that Kaddi underwent a thorough security assessment upon his arrival in Israel. This “process included an interrogation and additional checks, after which no security concerns were found that would justify denying him entry,” the security agency said, adding that the incident was under review to ensure proper procedures were followed.
גורמי הביטחון בודקים: על גופת המחבל נמצא דרכון אמריקני. יליד 95 ממוצא מרוקני. בנוסף נמצא אישור כניסה לישראל מלפני 3 ימים. די חריג pic.twitter.com/m40ZGDimSj
— איתי בלומנטל
Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) January 21, 2025
The attack unfolded in two locations, Nahalat Binyamin Street and nearby Kalisher Street, a bustling area adjacent to the Carmel market frequented by locals and tourists.
Emergency responders from Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency medical service, said that four people — three in their twenties and one in his fifties — were listed in moderate and light condition after sustaining stabbing wounds.
Witnesses described scenes of panic as the attack unfolded. “We heard a burst of gunfire, saw people running, and rushed into a bathroom,” an eyewitness who was near the scene of the attack told Israel’s Channel 12 News. “We stepped out briefly to check if it was just the sound of a motorcycle, but then we heard another loud bang — and ran to the nearest shelter. All the while, we could hear the sound of many vehicles arriving.”
Warning: Viewer discretion is advised, as the brief clip below shows Kaddi’s dead body.
Authorities urged residents to stay away from the area as police combed the streets, searching for possible accomplices or any additional threats. Volunteer police officer Rani Shilat said the attacker arrived on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice who fled the scene and is still at large.
According to Shilat, the area quickly returned to its usual bustling state shortly after the attack.
The attack comes amid heightened security concerns in Israel, with an ongoing wave of violence in major cities including Tel Aviv, which has been the target of several attacks in recent months. Hundreds of volunteer police officers have been deployed to support the city’s law enforcement.
Israeli police patrol the streets of Tel Aviv after a stabbing attack on Jan. 21, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of volunteer police officer Rani Shilat
Shilat expressed concerns that Tel Aviv could face more attacks in the near future, attributing the threat to a growing sense of confidence among terrorists following the recent Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas as well as the fact that “so many murderers are now roaming the streets free.” The deal, which stipulates the release of 33 hostages from Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners, has, according to Shilat, also emboldened other potential attackers.
“It reinforces their sense of victory,” Shilat said. “Their mindset now is that even in the worst-case scenario, they’ll eventually be freed in another deal somewhere down the line.”
Security forces are working to determine whether Kaddi acted alone or had connections to extremist groups.
He had a history of expressing pro-terror sentiments on social media, frequently sharing content in support of Gaza and against Israel. Kaddi accused Israel of starving northern Gaza and posted a video praising Islam with the caption “free Palestine,” along with an image of Ibrahim Nablusi, a Palestinian Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades commander killed in Nablus who is hailed by pro-Palestinian groups as the martyr and “Lion of Nablus.”
Following Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Kaddi wrote about martyrdom in Islam, posting that “what is happening now may be the reason for the doubling of the number of martyrs for Islam.” His Facebook account was deleted on Tuesday evening, shortly after his identity as the attacker was revealed.
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Elise Stefanik Calls Out ‘Antisemitic Rot’ At United Nations, Vows To Stress ‘The Importance of Standing With Israel’
US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) speaks during a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled ‘Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism’ on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, Dec. 5, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
During Tuesday’s Senate confirmation hearings, Rep. Elise Stefanik (D-NY), President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as United Nations (UN) ambassador, lambasted the “antisemitic rot” in the UN, vowing to restore “moral clarity” at the intergovernmental organization.
“If you look at the anti-Semitic rot within the United Nations, there are more resolutions targeting Israel than any other country, any other crisis combined,” Stefanik said.
Stefanik continued by pointing out that members of the UN have refused to emphatically condemn the widely-corroborated and evidenced claims of systemic rape of Israeli women on Oct. 7 by the Hamas terrorist group. The congresswoman said she was “overjoyed” at the recent return of three Israeli female hostages—Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari—from the clutches of Hamas, which was made possible by the recent ceasefire deal between the Jewish state and the terrorist group.
“We need to stay committed to ensuring every hostage is brought home. I’ve met with many hostage families. This position, we need to be a voice of moral clarity on the UN Security Council and at the United Nations at large, for the world to hear the importance of standing with Israel, and I intend to do that,” Stefanik said.
Stefanik, one of the most stalwart allies of the Jewish state in Congress, reflected on the upcoming 50th anniversary of the controversial and “disgraceful” UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 which defined Zionism as “a form of racism and discrimination.”
“At the time, our UN ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynahan spoke out strongly against that disgraceful resolution. That is the type of leadership that I hope to bring if confirmed to the United Nations,” Stefanik said.
Beyond the UN, Stefanik also discussed her views on potential West Bank annexation. Stefanik fielded questions from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), one of the most vociferous critics of Israel in the Senate, regarding her view on the West Bank. Van Hollen asked Stefanik whether she agrees with right-wing Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that the Jewish state has a “biblical right to the entire West Bank.”
“Yes,” Stefanik replied.
Van Hollen responded that expanding Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank would prevent “peace and stability” in the Middle East. He encouraged her to rethink her position, urging her to consider the existing UN Security Council resolutions regarding the West Bank.
Van Hollen and Stefanik also tusseled over whether Palestinians deserve “self determination” in the form of their own state. Van Hollen asserted that Stefanik privately expressed her support for a Palestinian state. However, Stefanik accused the Senator of misrepresenting her viewpoint, instead Palestinains “deserve so much better than the failures they’ve had from terrorist leadership.”
In the year following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Isarel, Stefanik has established herself as one of the most vocal allies of the Jewish state.
While serving on the Education and the Workforce Committee, Stefanik has lambasted administrators of elite universities for their mealy-mouthed condemnations of antisemitism and tolerance of anti-Jewish violence on campus. In December 2023, Stefanik engaged in a fiery back-and-forth with the presidents of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over purported antisemitic campus atmospheres.
During the 2024 presidential election, Stefanik cut a video with Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), encouraging Jewish voters to throw their support behind Donald Trump.
“This is the most important election cycle in our lifetime, and as we have seen on college campuses, the rot of antisemitism is real in the Democratic Party,” Stefanik said.
RJC—an organization which works to enhance ties between the Republican party and the Jewish community—praised Stefanik’s performance during the confirmation hearings.
“By nominating Rep. [Elise Stefanik] to be the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, President Trump has sent a clear message: that we will stand by our cherished ally Israel and fight back against the vile antisemitism running rampant in Turtle Bay,” RJC wrote on X/Twitter. “RJC is proud to support Rep. Stefanik’s nomination, and strongly urges all US Senators to swiftly confirm her,” RJC continued.
The post Elise Stefanik Calls Out ‘Antisemitic Rot’ At United Nations, Vows To Stress ‘The Importance of Standing With Israel’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New Syrian Government Rejects Claims of Goods Ban from Israel, Iran, and Russia
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, waits to welcome the senior Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Damascus’s new authorities have denied circulating reports about a ban on goods imported from Iran, Russia, and Israel from entering the country.
Mazen Alloush, the public relations officer at the General Authority for Land and Maritime Crossings, told Enab Baladi, an independent Syrian media organization, that reports regarding the restriction of goods stem from pages impersonating the Syrian government.
This comes after an account on Telegram, under the name of the Syrian Land and Sea Ports Authority, claimed that the country’s Ministry of Finance had ruled the prohibition of goods originating from Iran, Israel, and Russia from entering Syrian territory, with authorities ordering their confiscation at all land and sea border crossings.
This fake account was also advertising several job openings at various border crossings, including Dara’a, Jdeidet Yabous, Kassab, and others.
However, the General Authority for Land and Maritime Crossings does not have any social media accounts, Alloush explained, adding that all decisions are issued exclusively by the official Syrian news agency (SANA).
The interim Damascus government established the Authority for Land and Maritime Crossings in late December 2024 after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Despite no official ban being in place so far, the Ministry of Economy is working on preparing “negative lists” to support local production and protect the agricultural calendar.
Given that Syria has no formal ties with Russia, Iran, or Israel since the new administration took power after the fall of al-Assad’s regime in December, Damascus likely receives little to no imports from those countries.
Following the rebel takeover last year, the absence of official media has led to the widespread circulation of fake news.
This fake Telegram account also published a document, falsely claiming it was issued by Syrian authorities, that allegedly bans the entry of Israelis and Iranians through land, air, and maritime crossings.
Even though this document is false, Turkish Airlines announced last week a set of travel conditions for its resumption of flights to Syria, stating that these conditions, issued by Syrian authorities, allow citizens from all countries to travel, except for Iranians and Israelis.
After the collapse of al-Assad’s regime, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces to deploy in the buffer zone between Israel and Syria to protect their border and prevent terrorist attacks. This marked the first time since the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 that Israeli forces have remained in the area for more than a few hours.
At the time, Netanyahu referred to the collapse of Syria’s old regime as a “historic” victory for Israeli strategy and security, calling it “a pivotal step toward regional stability and peace.”
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