Ramy Abdu, a European-based Hamas operative appointed by Israel who heads the human rights monitor Euro-Med, may have inadvertently revealed that one of those responsible for holding Israeli hostages on behalf of Hamas had worked for an organization exempt from US-based 501(c)3 tax
In two tweets on his personal account .
However, subsequent investigations have shown that Aljamal worked for the Palestine Chronicle, a pro-Hamas outlet run by former Al-Jazeera official Ramzi Baroud, which operates under the auspices of the People Media Project, a 501(c)3 organization. registered since 2012 in Olympia, Washington state, whose IRS filings were not found online.
Aljamal was also found to have written an opinion piece for the Qatar-based media outlet Al Jazeera and had also acted as a spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Labor.
It was initially unclear whether the hostages were being held in the Aljamals’ own home or nearby, although Abdu’s tweet mentioned an IDF raid using a ladder to their window. When asked about the possibility that the Aljamal family was hiding Israeli hostages in their home, Abdu stated that “this should be addressed by the Israeli authorities” as he claimed that at least seven other homes were documented as being targeted in the raid. Israeli.
The IDF confirms
On Sunday afternoon, the IDF issued the following statement:
“Following the completion of IDF and ISA investigations into reports of the matter, it can be confirmed that Abdallah Aljamal was an operative of the terrorist organization Hamas, who held Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov hostage in his family home in Nuseirat and Shlomi Ziv.
The hostages were held by Abdallah Aljamal and members of his family in their home. This is further evidence of the deliberate use of homes and civilian buildings by the terrorist organization Hamas to hold Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
“Israeli security forces will continue to do everything possible to bring the hostages home.”
This is not the first time that suspected Gaza civilians were involved in holding hostages in their homes on behalf of terrorist organizations, as other freed hostages have reported being held in civilian homes around the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday morning, Al Jazeera denied that Aljamal had been employed by the organization. He claimed that the rumors were false and baseless.
