The Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military has created a special unit called the Legitimisation Cell with the aim of finding Gaza journalists who could potentially be portrayed as “terrorists” in Hamas and other organisations.

Three unnamed Israeli intelligence sources told the publication that the motivation was public relations, not security, and the unit would work to find any information that could be used against journalists whenever criticism of Israel in the media intensified.

Information gathered by the unit was also passed regularly to US officials through direct channels. In at least one case since the start of the war, the unit misrepresented intelligence in a way that allowed for the false portrayal of a journalist as a member of Hamas’s military wing.

According to +972 Magazine, “a similar pattern of manipulation is evident in the intelligence presented” on Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who was killed with five other journalists after Israel accused him of being a Hamas operative. It said the same applies to accusations levelled against assassinated Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul.

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