Israel accuses 6 Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza of being Palestinian militants

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli army on Wednesday accused six Al Jazeera journalists covering the war in Gaza of also being current or former paid fighters for Palestinian militant groups. Al Jazeera rejected the claims.

Israel cited documents it purportedly found in Gaza, and other intelligence it gathered, in making the accusations against the journalists, all of whom are Palestinian men. It said four are or have been affiliated with Hamas, and two with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera said the accusations were “fabricated” and “part of a wider pattern of hostility” toward the pan-Arab network. It said the claims were “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”

The Associated Press has been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the documents Israel posted online to support its claims.

Al Jazeera is based in the energy-rich nation of Qatar, where many senior Hamas officials are based. The Gulf Arab country, which funds Al Jazeera, also has been a key player in Gaza cease-fire negotiations, along with the U.S. and Egypt.

Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ismael Abu Omar, and Talal Arrouki were accused by Israel of ties to Hamas. Ashraf Saraj and Alaa Salameh were accused of ties to Islamic Jihad.

The men have held various roles, according to documents Israel cited -- sniper, infantry soldier, fighter, captain, training coordinator and “propaganda.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement on Wednesday that was critical of Israel, which it said “has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”

In July, after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed two Al Jazeera journalists, including Ismail Al Ghoul, Israel “produced a similar document, which contained contradictory information, showing that Al Ghoul, born in 1997, received a Hamas military ranking in 2007 – when he would have been 10 years old,” the committee said in its statement.

Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad led last year's attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostages into Gaza. They have been fighting alongside each other against Israeli troops in Gaza for the past year.

In January, Israel detailed allegations against 12 employees of a United Nations agency that it says were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel last year that ignited the war in Gaza. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, subsequently fired at least 21 staffers for their roles in the attack. UNRWA has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to civilians in Gaza during the war.

Four Al Jazeera journalists have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza over the past 12 months, according to the network. Several of the dead later have been accused by Israel of being members of either Hamas or Islamic Jihad, accusations rejected by the Qatari outlet.

In May, after an Israeli court ordered the closure of Al Jazeera's operations and broadcasts within Israel, police raided a hotel room in East Jerusalem from where the network had been broadcasting live images.

It was the first time Israel had ever shuttered a foreign news outlet. Four months later, Israel raided Al Jazeera's office in the Palestinian-governed West Bank city of Ramallah, shutting down the bureau there.

Several of those named by Israel on Wednesday, including al-Sharif, have become mainstay figures of the outlet's 24-hour live coverage of Gaza. They have acquired celebrity-like status among Palestinians and in other countries across the Middle East.

Al Jazeera is one of a handful of news organizations still broadcasting daily from the besieged enclave.

The documents and intelligence Israel released Wednesday purportedly show the rank, role, enlistment date, and battalion of each of the six Al Jazeera journalists.

At least 128 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since last October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. They include 123 Palestinians, two Israelis and three Lebanese.

Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the war began, according to the local health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says more than half of the dead are women and children.

Even before the war, tensions between Al Jazeera and Israel ran high. Israeli forces shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, in May 2022 as she reported on a story in the West Bank.

Israel isn't the only critic of Al Jazeera. The U.S. singled out the broadcaster during its occupation of Iraq after its 2003 invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, and for airing videos of the late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attack against the U.S.

Al Jazeera has been closed or blocked by other governments in the Middle East. In 2013, Egyptian authorities seeking to crush mass protests against President Mohammed Morsi raided a luxury hotel used by Al Jazeera.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

FILE - Palestinian Hamas supporters hold posters shows the Israeli bombardment on Gaza during a protest demanding that staff who were fired in the Gaza Strip over allegations that they took part in the Oct. 7, attack on southern Israel be returned to their jobs and that countries resume funding of the agency, in front of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Beirut, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

FILE- Al Jazeera broadcast engineer Mohammad Salameh works at the Master Control Room unit inside the network's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)

FILE - Al Jazeera network office in the West Bank city of Ramallah is shown May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Wednesday recommended that people 50 and older get a shot against bacteria that can cause pneumonia and other dangerous illnesses.

The recommendation was made by a scientific advisory panel and then accepted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decision lowered — from 65 — the minimum recommended age for older adults to get the shot.

“Now is a great time to get vaccinated against pneumococcal disease in preparation for the winter respiratory season,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement Wednesday night.

The advisory committee voted 14-1 to make the change during a meeting earlier in the day in Atlanta. The guidance is widely heeded by doctors and prompts health insurers to pay for recommended shots.

Pneumococcal shot recommendations are sometimes called the most complicated vaccination guidance that the government issues. The CDC currently recommends shots for children younger than 5 and adults 65 or older, as long as they have never been vaccinated against pneumococcal disease. Officials also recommend the shots for children and adults at increased risk for pneumococcal disease, such as those with diabetes, chronic liver disease or a weakened immune system.

There are more than 100 known types of pneumococci bacteria, which can cause serious infections in the lungs and other parts of the body. Each year, the U.S. sees roughly 30,000 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease, which includes blood infections, brain and spine inflammation, and other illnesses. About 30% of cases are among 50- to 64-year-olds.

The first pneumococcal vaccine was licensed in the U.S. in 1977, and since then pharmaceutical companies have been coming up with newer versions that target a dozen or more types in a single shot. Different vaccines have fallen in and out of favor, including Pfizer’s Prevnar 13, which was once a top-seller but is no longer available.

There are four vaccines now in use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this year approved the newest — Merck’s Capvaxive, which can cost around $300 a dose and protects against 21 types, including eight not included in other pneumococcal vaccines. A Merck spokesperson said it was specifically designed to help protect against the bacteria types that cause the majority of severe disease in adults aged 50 and older.

The CDC advisory panel in June recommended the vaccine as an option for adults at higher risk. At the time, the committee also talked about the possibility of lowering the age recommendation for older adults. They noted that illness-causing infections peak at age 55 to 59 in Black Americans — a lower age than what’s seen in white people. But the committee put off that decision until this week's meeting.

Some concerns: A booster shot may prove to be necessary, perhaps in about 15 years. And there are some new vaccines in development that could force another update to the recommendations.

“Pneumococcal has been a very confusing recommendation for many, many years and it’s hard to have a new recommendation every two or three years,” said Dr. Jamie Loehr, chair of the committee’s pneumococcal working group. He was the only person to vote against the proposal.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This electron microscopic image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention depicts two, round-shaped, Gram-positive, Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria. (Janice Haney Carr/CDC via AP)