A post from the Israeli military acknowledged that Ismail al-Ghoul was a journalist " and also accused him, without evidence, of being a terrorist. Al-Ghoul had been covering the war in Gaza since November. In March, he reported that he and other journalists had been arrested by Israeli soldiers during the Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. They were then stripped, handcuffed, blindfolded and interrogated over several hours, according to al-Ghoul; witnesses said he was severely beaten. Al-Ghoul reported being detained for about 12 hours. Among other questions, the IDF spokesperson did not answer why Israeli forces had released al-Ghoul in March if he was supposedly a military operative of Hamas. In a statement Thursday, Al Jazeera repeated its earlier condemnation of Israel's killing of al-Ghoul and al-Rifi, noting that the decision to release al-Ghoul in March "debunks and refutes their false claim of his affiliation with any organisation."