Israeli hostage Noa Argamani was reportedly held captive in Gaza, at the home of a Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist.
A version taken up by the IDF, but which contains many gray areas and which is not supported by any evidence.
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The information scrutinized
It is the end of eight months of captivity for four Israelis. Hostages of Hamas since October 7, they were released on June 8 by the IDF, while they were in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip. Among them was Noa Argamani. Everyone remembers the spectacular kidnapping on a motorcycle of the 25-year-old young woman, who was participating that morning in the Nova festival, in the south of Israel.
A rumor relayed by the army
The rumor originated in a tweet: that of Rami Abdu, director of the Euro-Med Human Rights Observatory – an independent organization based in Geneva (Switzerland). On June 8, Ramni Abdu shared a photo of a room, supposed to be the place of detention of Noa Argamani, accompanied by “details” on the operation carried out. The Israeli army then allegedly used a ladder to enter the home of Dr Ahmed Al-Jamal, father of journalist Abdallah Aljamal with whom he lived. Both were reportedly executed, along with his wife, Fatima, and their daughter, Zainab.
The accusation was then taken up by the IDF… which ended up changing its version and indicating that Noa Argamani was not in captivity with the journalist and his relatives, but rather the three other hostages released that day: Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv. To free the four hostages, Israeli forces targeted two apartments, as reported by the New York Times : one, near the Nuseirat market, where Noa Argamni was detained. The other located in another building in the same residence, where the three other hostages were located.
The raid ultimately took place in these two buildings, causing numerous collateral victims. At least 274 Palestinians were killed there, according to a Hamas toll which cannot be verified by independent sources. But this does not mean that one or more hostages were found at the home of journalist Abdallah Aljamal. According to CNN, the latter lived on the first floor of the building, while the three hostages were found on the third floor. For the moment, the Israeli army has not provided any proof for what it is saying and, when we ask for it, simply indicates that it will come back to us with more information.
A “tribunal” for Al Jazeera
What is certain is that presenting this man as an Al Jazeera journalist is misleading. In a statement, the Qatari media refuted the Israeli version, explaining that“Abdullah Al-Jamal has never worked with the network, but contributed to an op-ed in 2019.” This is what we can say about his journey.
Born and living in Gaza, the man graduated from the Islamic University in 2020. On his Facebook profile, he indicated that he was “journalist at the Palestinian Press and Information Agency” and at “Ministry of Labor Media in the Gaza Strip”. Which would corroborate the Israeli thesis of a former job within a Hamas ministry. If the period is not known, Abdallah Aljamal seemed to have since devoted himself to the profession of independent journalist.
He did write an article for Al Jazeera in January 2019, which we found and which focused on testimonies of cases of torture in Israeli prisons. “The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera,” is specified at the bottom of the page. His author profile is still online on the Al Jazeera website and refers to this article alone.
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Since 2019, the Palestinian journalist seems to have mainly worked for a site, for which he reported on daily life and the war from Gaza: The Palestine Chronicle, a “independent webzine which devotes most of its content to Palestine and Israel” and which Israel accuses of being pro-Hamas. All of his publications are still online. In an article, the Washington-based site paid tribute to its journalist, who died on June 8 and “well known in Gaza”.
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