LONDON: Israel’s military has operated a covert intelligence unit tasked with discrediting Palestinian journalists by falsely linking them to Hamas in an effort to justify their targeting, a magazine report claims.

The revelations, published by Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine and based on accounts from three intelligence sources, suggest the existence of a so-called “legitimization cell” that was created following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The unit was established to deflect growing international criticism over Israel’s targeting of media workers in Gaza and to preserve global support, particularly by ensuring continued US weapons supplies that sustain its military campaign.

The report follows Israel’s recent killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif and three of his colleagues in a targeted airstrike on their makeshift newsroom. Israel claimed Al-Sharif was a Hamas commander, but failed to substantiate the claim with credible evidence. The killing sparked global outcry, with press freedom groups accusing Israel of deliberately targeting journalists and weaponizing unverified intelligence to manufacture legitimacy.

Before his death, Al-Sharif called for protection and warned that Israel’s accusation that linked him to Hamas, frequently repeated by Israeli officials since his reporting on famine in Gaza gained global attention, were attempts to justify his killing.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said more than 180 media workers have been killed in Israeli attacks since late 2023, describing 26 of those deaths as targeted killings and “murders.”

According to the report, the unit was not established for national security purposes, but rather to provide diplomatic and public relations cover for Israeli operations in Gaza, especially when journalists were among the casualties.

The sources said the unit’s purpose was not intelligence gathering in the conventional sense but rather to collect information that could be declassified and circulated to neutralize criticism. Whenever media scrutiny of Israel’s actions intensified, the cell would be tasked with finding a journalist who could be framed as having links to militant activity, even if such evidence was weak or misleading.

“If the global media is talking about Israel killing innocent journalists, then immediately there’s a push to find one journalist who might not be so innocent, as if that somehow makes killing the other 20 acceptable,” one of the sources told the magazine.

Foreign media have been barred from entering Gaza. As a result, Palestinian journalists remain the primary source of on-the-ground reporting. These journalists have faced increasing threats, including direct accusations from Israeli officials and smear campaigns that blur the lines between civilian press and combatant.

Human rights organizations and press freedom advocates have repeatedly accused Israel of deliberately targeting media workers in an effort to silence independent reporting and conceal alleged atrocities in Gaza.

They have called for independent investigations into attacks on journalists, many of whom have been killed while visibly reporting in press-marked gear or inside known media offices.