The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen inside its headquarters in Doha, Qatar June 8, 2017.(photo credit: REUTERS/NASEEM ZEITOON)
Documents uncovered in Gaza have revealed that Hamas has been issuing instructions to the Qatari state-run media outlet Al Jazeera and is stomping out any signs of insurgency among the enclave’s population, according to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
Based on the documents, the research center has determined that Hamas’s information officers have been coordinating with Al Jazeera regarding its rhetoric to formulate coverage that avoids damaging “the image of the resistance.”
One of the documents discovered in 2022 instructed Al Jazeera to avoid using terminology such as “massacre” to describe a Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile strike in Jabalya. In that document, Hamas acknowledged that these attacks were not he result of “the occupation’s” maneuvers.
Further, the same text confirmed that the terrorist organization’s request to Al Jazeera was met with a positive response “by the network’s newsroom management.”
Another document revealed that Hamas attempted to establish a secure communication line with Al Jazeera, allowing direct coordination between the media giant’s offices in Doha and the terrorist group.
from Hamas’ military wing to Al Jazeera, December 4, 2022 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
This line was allegedly intended to promote coverage in emergency situations and allow Hamas’s military wing to send real-time instructions on what to broadcast and what to embargo.
According to the research center, this is rare proof of the existence of systemic coordination between a terrorist organization and an international news network.
The rhetoric used in Al Jazeera’s coverage of the war has also mirrored Hamas’s own descriptions, with the news source describing its members as mujahideen or muqawimin (jihad fighters or resistance fighters). After their deaths, Hamas terrorists were then called shaheeds (martyrs who died for the sake of Allah).
Alternatively, the network refers to the IDF as the “occupation army,” naming its troops as “the occupation’s soldiers.” Throughout Al Jazeera’s coverage of the hostage crisis, moreover, it repeatedly called the hostages “the prisoners.”
As part of this tight connection between Hamas and Al Jazeera, reporters were also granted unprecedented access to much of the terrorist group’s complex underground tunnel system.
Case in point, Al Jazeera reporter Wael al-Dahdouh showed Hamas tunnels, conducting interviews with military wing operatives who told him that building a tunnel took years, in a documentary that aired in January 2024.
In another report on Hamas’s tunnels, Al Jazeera was allowed to record operatives rigging one tunnel with a booby trap, the study noted.
Letter from Hamas’ military wing to Al Jazeera, August 16, 2022 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
An Al Jazeera April 2024 report then claimed that this ambush set for the IDF had been a success. To prove this to be true, the network broadcast imagery of weapons and IDF military equipment allegedly taken from the field by Hamas operatives afterward.
Journalists doubling as terrorists
Beyond directly dictating Al Jazeera’s coverage and terminology, it was found that many of the outlet’s journalists working in the Palestinian organization were doubling as operatives in Hamas’s military wing, and some had even participated in the October 7 massacre.
The IDF has long recorded the issue of journalists doubling as terrorists. Among those the military has named and targeted was reporter Anas al-Sharif.
Sharif, the Al Jazeera reporter in Gaza who was killed in an IDF attack on August 10, 2025, was named in discovered documents as a member of Hamas’s military wing, associated with the east Jabalya Battalion in the northern Gaza Brigade.
According to the lists, Sharif served as a militant and squad leader in the Talul-Melag firing unit, as a fighter in the Nukhba Force, and as the head of his battalion’s information department.
The documents also named Ismail Abu Ammar, an Al Jazeera correspondent from Khan Yunis who was wounded in February 2024, as a member of Hamas’s Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades and as a commander in the terror group’s east Khan Yunis Battalion.
He was one of the first to cover the October 7 invasion live. The research center said it was likely that Ammar had prior knowledge of the attack, allowing him to document it as he did in real time.
Another reporter for Al Jazeera named in the documents was Talal Mahmoud Abdel Rahman Al-Arouki, who was seriously wounded while covering an Israeli attack in Nuseirat on November 28, 2024.
Arouki’s name appeared on a Hamas list of its operatives from 2023, in which he was identified as a group commander with the rank of captain in the Jerusalem Brigade. In a separate Hamas document, Arouki was listed as being among the wounded of Hamas’s Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades.
Furthermore, Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat, who collaborated with Al Jazeera and was killed in a targeted strike in March 2025, was named in the documents as a member of the anti-tank company of Hamas’s Beit Hanun Battalion and identified as a sniper operative.
In another Hamas record, Shabat’s name appeared among terrorists missing from the group battalion’s military training.
Abdallah Aljamal, a reporter and editor for the Palestine Chronicle who collaborated with Al Jazeera, was killed with his family during Operation Arnon. He was holding three Israelis hostage. They were rescued from his home in Nuseirat in June 2024.
Silencing Palestinian dissent
Per the research center, Al Jazeera has also been responsible for projecting an image that depicts Hamas as being popular among the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza.
The network has been seen cutting off Palestinians mid-interview when they say something that contradicts that narrative, the study found.
For example, on November 5, 2023, during a live Al Jazeera broadcast from the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital, an Al Jazeera reporter cut off an interview with a wounded Palestinian man when the interviewee began criticizing Hamas over having its operatives hide among civilians.
In December of that same year, an Al Jazeera journalist was filmed shoving a Palestinian interviewee aside when he answered, “Allah will hold Qatar and Turkey accountable,” after being asked by that reporter "to describe the massacre being committed by Israel.”
Pud says: Al Jazzerra is the Qatari owned mouthpiece of Hamas & its journalists are Terrorists
fully deserving the same treatment as captured Hamas Terrorists
The inventor of Communism 'exaggerated' class divides in Victorian Britain before condemning the 'cruelty' of capitalism, study finds
It is an ideology that continues to grip millions, not least because of its piercing critique of capitalism.
And Communism's founders, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, used the social conditions they saw in Britain to form the theory that still entices so many despite the blood spilled in its pursuit.
But now, a study has found Engels was wide of the mark when he said that Victorian Manchester typified the 'cruelty' of Capitalism.
University of Cambridge historian Emily Chung discovered that the city was not nearly as divided into rich and poor enclaves as Engels had suggested.
Instead, the so-called 'slums' in Manchester housed wealthy doctors and engineers who lived alongside poorer neighbours.
Engels, who lived and worked in Manchester on and off for more than 20 years, had described a commercial core encircled by 'unmixed working-peoples' quarters, then the 'middle bourgeoisie' and further beyond, the upper classes.
But Ms Chung said: 'Manchester's wealthier classes did not confine themselves to town houses in the city centre and suburban villas, as we've been led to believe.
'I found doctors, engineers, architects, surveyors, teachers, managers and shop owners living in the same buildings as poor weavers and spinners.'
A study has found that the co-founder of Communism 'exaggerated' class divides in Victorian Britain. Above: An 1838 print showing people in and outside a terraced house in Manchester, above and below street level
She added in additional comments to The Guardian: 'I wouldn't go as far to as to say Engels was wrong. I think what my research shows is that Engels exaggerated and took creative liberties.'
Many historians had relied on Engels' account, which he laid out in his 1844 book The Condition of the Working-Class in England.
Engels went on to co-write The Communist Manifesto with Marx. The book, published in 1848, ended with the now-famous words: 'Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains'.
Ms Chung used ordnance survey maps, commercial directories and data from the digitised 1851 census to precisely map where people from different social classes actually lived in Manchester.
Her study, published in The Historical Journal, shows that more than 60 per cent of buildings housing the wealthiest classes also housed unskilled labourers.
And more than 10 per cent of the population in Manchester's 'slums' belonged to wealthier employed classes.
Ms Chung, a PhD researcher at St John's College, Cambridge, continued: 'Segregation in cities remains a major concern in many parts of the world, including Britain, so understanding what people experienced in Manchester, one of the world's first industrialised cities, is really important.
'It teaches us that where we live matters, but other factors can be even more influential.
Engels was wide of the mark when he said that Victorian Manchester typified the 'cruelty' of Capitalism
'How people work, shop and relax divides social groups and can even make them invisible.'
Ms Chung spent eight months pinpointing buildings using known landmarks, including pubs, to guide her, mapping up to 700 buildings per day - which AI technology isn't yet capable of doing accurately.
She also found that the commercial district to Manchester's south-west was 'significantly more socially diverse' than residential zones of the city to the north and east.
But even in 'notorious' Ancoats - the main working-class slum which appalled Engels - around 10 per cent of the population belonged to the wealthier employed classes.
Across the city, the working-class represented an average of 79.3 per cent of the population.
When she zoomed in on individual buildings, she found that more than 60 per cent which housed the wealthiest occupational classes also housed unskilled labourers.
Ms Chung said: 'This was a big surprise.
'I started with the city centre and I thought the pattern might end there but as I moved onto the next part of Manchester, I kept finding this mixing.
Union Street Mill, Ancoats, Manchester. Ancoats appalled Engels, but Ms Chung's research found around 10 per cent of the population in the area belonged to the wealthier employed classes
'The most exciting moment was discovering that one in 10 people living in Ancoats, the notorious working-class slum, were middle-class.'
She added: 'Middle-class Mancunians might have seen their homes as stepping stones to something better.
'But architects and shop owners also valued the convenience of living close to where they worked. Commuter trains weren't popular yet.'
Ms Chung's research does show though that people of different classes were separated by lifestyles.
Semi-skilled and unskilled workers put in twelve-hour days, six days a week, meaning they were often trapped inside, while wealthier people were free to move around the city working, shopping and socialising
And the middle classes were increasingly drawn to church while the city's 600 pubs had a far greater pull on the working classes.
Ms Chung says one mystery that remains is how multiple families from different classes shared outdoor 'privvy' toilets.
She said 'Annoyingly, this isn't something that people wrote about at the time.
'I suspect that the middle classes still used chamber pots so they weren't so reliant on shared privvies.'
The Louvre's head of security has been accused of being a diversity hire who put France's national treasures at risk, following the shocking heist of Napoleonic jewellery over the weekend.
Dominique Buffin, 46, was hired as the Louvre's first female security chief by Laurence Des Cars, the museum's first female director, last year.
But Buffin, who has worked with the police and at France's ministry of culture, was accused of being hired as part of a 'feminisation policy'.
And both Buffin and Des Cars have faced calls to resign, following the 'theft of the decade' of eight pieces of the French Crown Jewels on October 19.
'Evidently at the cost of forgoing competence and endangering the cultural heritage of our nation.'
Dominique Buffin (pictured) was hired as the Louvre's first female security chief last year
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally party, said the raid was a 'wound to the country's soul'.
And her protege Jordan Bardella, the president of the party, added: 'This heist, which allowed thieves to steal the Crown Jewels of France, is an intolerable humiliation for our country. How far will the decay of the State go?'
Des Cars asked Paris cops to carry out a detailed security audit of the museums she is in charge of in 2021.
Dati said on the weekend that the recommendations from this audit were made 'a few weeks, a few months ago'.
She said the changes to the decades-old security systems were 'beginning to be implemented'.
Her ministry was quick to stress that the systems had not failed, writing: 'The alarms… were triggered. At the time of the break-in, which was particularly rapid and severe, the five museum staff present in the room and adjacent areas intervened immediately to apply the security protocol'.
The Louvre heist has become a wake-up call to other institutions in France, with interior minister Laurent Nunez ordering prefects across France to immediately reassess security measures protecting museums and other cultural sites and enhance them if needed.
The suspected thief was filmed as the group raided priceless jewellery that once belonged to Napoleon and his family
Dati said investigators are working on evidence found at the scene.
'We did find motorcycles and they have a licence plate,' Dati said on broadcaster CNews. 'I also want to pay tribute to the security officers who prevented the basket lift from being set on fire. One of the criminals tried to set it on fire, but they forced him to flee. This allowed us to recover evidence at the scene.'
Sunday's theft focused on the gilded Apollo Gallery, where the Crown Diamonds are displayed. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the burglary was already over.
Officials said the heist lasted less than eight minutes in total, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre.
Jewels stolen in broad daylight Louvre heist were worth an estimated €88MILLION, Paris prosecutor says - as minister insists security 'worked' on day of theft
The jewels stolen by a 'highly organised gang' in the broad daylight seven-minute Louvre heist are worth an estimated 88million euros (£76million or $102million), according to Paris' top prosecutor.
A group of four criminals swiped eight items from the world's most visited museum at around 9.30am local time on Sunday in one of the most jaw-dropping public robberies ever.
But Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, who confirmed the eye-watering value of the items today, said: 'The wrongdoers who took these gems won't earn 88million euros if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels'.
Ms Beccuau said the monetary estimate does not include the items' historical value to France as they all date from the country's 19th century royalty.
Around 100 investigators are now involved in the major hunt for the suspects and the gems, which were nabbed from the museum in broad daylight.
The raid sparked a major security concern after it emerged the gang simply propped up a ladder to enter the Louvre's Apollo gallery window before nabbing the diamond-encrusted items.
But France's culture minister has insisted that security at the museum 'worked' during the theft.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau (pictured) said the jewels stolen in the seven-minute Louvre heist are worth an estimated 88million euros (£76million or $102million)
'The Louvre museum's security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact,' Rachida Dati told lawmakers in the National Assembly. 'The Louvre museum's security apparatus worked.'
Ms Dati said an inquiry has been launched in addition to the police investigation to uncover what happened, though she did not offer any details over how the thieves managed to carry out the raid given the cameras were working.
She described the robbery as 'a wound for all of us', adding: ''Why? Because the Louvre is far more than the world's largest museum. It's a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony.'
The museum continued its shutdown into Sunday night as a meeting was held with interior minister Laurent Nunez and Ms Dati after it emerged security guards failed to confront the gang.
Mr Nunez said the museum's alarm was triggered when the window of the Apollo Gallery was forced and that police arrived two or three minutes after they were called by an onlooker.
The minister also did not disclose details about video surveillance cameras that may have filmed the thieves around and in the museum pending a police investigation.
'There are cameras all around the Louvre,' he said.
Justice minister Gerald Darmanin conceded windows and display cabinets were too easily broken into and there were not enough CCTV cameras in the targeted wing.
'We failed and presented a deplorable image of France,' he said.
The gang, who remain at large, arrived masked and wielding angle grinders before launching their heist.
Footage earlier this week appeared to show one of the suspected thieves wearing a hi-viz vest as they appear to break into a glass cabinet.
The group are believed to have targeted the wing of the musuem by the Seine River because construction works had been taking place.
In the whirlwind heist, the gang hurriedly prised open two display cases and crammed away nine pieces of the 23-item Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte collection.
In total they got away with eight objects including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense.
They also nabbed an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte's second wife; a reliquary brooch; and Empress Eugenie's diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble which contains 2,438 diamonds.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Sunday: 'We will recover the works and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.'
Paris launches huge manhunt after priceless Napoleonic jewels stolen from the Louvre as the Mail reveals the audacious daylight raid minute-by-minute
Paris has launched a huge manhunt after audacious thieves carried out a jaw-dropping daylight heist on the Louvre, swiping nine of the museum's most priceless treasures including a £100million crown, in just seven minutes.
The gang of several 'highly organised criminals' arrived outside the world's most visited museum at around 9.30am local time on Sunday while thousands of tourists enjoyed a day out at the attraction.
Masked and wielding angle grinders, the gang parked up their scooters outside the Apollo Gallery (Galerie d'Apollon), home to jewels belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte, his wife Josephine and a string of subsequent Emperors and Empresses.
They then extended a freight elevator, resembling a giant ladder, from the back of a flat-bed truck and propped it up against the wall of the gallery, which was opened by King Louis XIV in the 17th Century.
The targeted wing of the Louvre, on the River Seine side of the museum, was undergoing construction work when the gang struck. Employees had previously protested under-staffing at the museum in June.
After scurrying to the top of the ladder, they used an angle grinder to pierce through the museum's external window, before climbing into the Salle 705 exhibition room.
In a whirlwind seven-minute heist, they prised open two display cases and crammed away nine pieces of the 23-item Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte collection, Le Parisien reports.
Several 'highly organised criminals' arrived outside the Louvre at around 9.30am local time on Sunday and propped a freight elevator against its walls before completing a seven-minute raid. A more than seven-minute response time by police seems pretty slow.
Officers rushed to the scene and were pictured inspecting the empty site after a mass evacuation
The gang is also believed to have swiped a priceless necklace and brooch from Salle 705.
By 9.40am they were out of the Louvre, disappearing into the Paris morning on their scooters just as police started to arrive.
When they got there, officers found the huge elevator left up against the museum's historic stone walls.
Further photos showed what appeared to be an angle grinder on the front seat of a truck, parked outside the Louvre and surrounded by police tape.
Meanwhile, thousands of panicking tourists were trapped inside the iconic building while a hurried evacuation took place, before being escorted towards the city's streets on a busy day in the French capital.
Forensics teams were later spotted outside the Louvre, inspecting the elevator and the truck on which it stood.
Police gather on the Louvre Pyramid spiral staircase after the theft of Napoleon collection jewellery pieces at the museum
A member of a forensic team inspects a window believed to have been used in what the French Interior Ministry said was a robbery at the Louvre museum
Images appear to show a disc-cutter in a lorry at the site of the robbery, believed to have been used to cut through the musuem's external window
It is home to the Regent diamond, viewed by many as the most beautiful in the world, which was strangely not stolen, according to Le Parisien.
After being crowned Emperor and Empress of France in 1804, Napoleon and Josephine amassed one of the most impressive jewellery collections ever known.
Many of the pieces were stolen from royalty during the French Revolution, while others were taken from around the country's sweeping Empire, which expanded rapidly under the emperor's rule.
The Louvre, with its iconic pyramid entrance, also features Leonardo Da Vinci's 16th Century masterpiece Mona Lisa.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed an investigation had been launched into 'theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime' by an organised gang.
The Banditism Repression Brigade of the Judicial Police (BRB) is leading the enquiry, along with the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property.
Mr Nuñez said: 'It was necessary to close the Louvre to visitors, primarily to preserve traces and clues so that investigators could work calmly. The evacuation of the public took place without incident.'
He added: 'We can't prevent everything. There is great vulnerability in French museums.
'Everything is being done to ensure we find the perpetrators as quickly as possible, and I'm hopeful.'
The busy Quai François-Mitterand, which stretches along the Louvre's buildings, was closed off to traffic until around 4pm on Sunday.
Those stealing historical art pieces or jewellery often work for dealers who will be unable to sell the priceless items on the black market.
Instead, the treasures will be kept hidden and enjoyed by the master criminal who commissioned the raid.
Rachida Dati, France's Culture Minister, said: 'I am on site alongside the museum staff and the police.'
She confirmed a criminal enquiry had been launched, and that detectives were liaising with museum staff.
According to Ms Dati, nobody was hurt during the raids, while a Louvre spokesman confirmed the museum was shut 'for exceptional reasons'.
On June 16, staff at the Louvre staged a protest over the museum's lack of staff and overcrowding.
The demonstration delayed the opening of the tourist attraction into the afternoon, causing queues of thousands to develop outside the museum.
High-end art thefts are not unusual in Paris, including at the Louvre, which opened in 1793 after serving as a palace since the late 12th Century.
The most infamous came in 1911 when the Mona Lisa was taken, causing an international outcry.
Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the world's most popular art museum, hid in a cupboard overnight to take the painting.
It was recovered two years later when he tried to sell it to an antiques dealer in Florence, Italy.
Before Sunday's brazen heist, the last theft at the Louvre took place in 1998 when Le Chemin de Sevres (The Sevres Road), by 19th Century artist Camille Corot, was plucked off the wall without anyone noticing. It remains missing to this day.
The latest raid comes despite authorities regularly pledging to improve security at the numerous galleries across the city.
Police surround the tourist attraction after jewelry previously belonging to Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte was swiped from the museum
Among their haul were seven highly prized snuffboxes, including two loaned by the British Crown.
The daytime raid led to an insurance payout of more than £3 million to the Royal Collection Trust.
In 2017, three art thieves were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for stealing five masterpieces worth almost £100m from the Paris Museum of Modern Art.
A burglary in May 2010 saw works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse disappear from the same gallery.
