“Journalist” and Hamas terrorist Abdullah al-Jamal was slain when Israeli forces freed Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir Jan and Shlomi Ziv.

Jonathan Spyer

By Jonathan Spyer

Further evidence is emerging of the wide-reaching activities of the late Abdullah al-Jamal (his name is sometimes spelled Abdallah Aljamal), the Palestinian journalist who in his spare time served also as the host/jailer for three of the four kidnapped Israeli hostages freed in an Israeli special forces operation in Gaza last week.

Al-Jamal, along with his wife, Fatima, and father, Ahmed, was killed when Israeli forces entered their apartment, where the hostages were being held, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza. The three rescued hostages held by the al-Jamals were Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir Jan and Shlomi Ziv.

In addition to his service assisting the Hamas authorities in Gaza in the incarceration of civilian abductees, al-Jamal was employed as a spokesman for the Gaza Labor Ministry. He also found time in his busy schedule to work as a journalist, penning a long list of articles for the U.S.-based Palestine Chronicle newspaper, as well as a co-authored piece for Al Jazeera.

But al-Jamal’s activities don’t appear to have stopped there. Evidence has also emerged, ironically, that in addition to holding (Israeli) prisoners, he was also an activist for the rights of Palestinians incarcerated for terrorist offences. This element of his activities brought al-Jamal into contact with internationally known figures.

For example, a look at al-Jamal’s Facebook page reveals an entry dated May 23, 2023, which shows him taking part in what he describes as “an international meeting via Zoom, which brought together freed Palestinian prisoners with Irish freed prisoners and activists, most notably the freed prisoner Danny Morrison, one of the most prominent leaders of the Irish experience in hunger strikes during the occupation.”

The Gazan journalist/activist continues that the meeting was held to “galvanize the issue of the hunger strike, and expose the occupation’s crimes against prisoners.”

Morrison, a former member of the terrorist Provisional IRA, was director of publicity for Sinn Fein, the political wing of the movement, in the 1980s. Belfast-born, Morrison served as the spokesman for the jailed IRA hunger strikers in 1981.

In 1990, he was sentenced to eight years in jail for conspiracy to murder and false imprisonment, but was released in 1995. Morrison was an active supporter of the peace process that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.