The Israeli military has alleged six Palestinians in Gaza as Al Jazeera reporters who it said were also members of the Hamas or Islamic Jihad, an allegation which the Qatari network rejected as an attempt to silence journalists.

“Al Jazeera condemns Israeli accusations against its journalists in Gaza and warns against [this] being a justification for targeting them,” the network said in a statement.

The Israeli military published documents that it said it had found in Gaza that proved the men had a military affiliation with the groups. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the authenticity of the documents.

The Israeli military said the papers included Hamas and Islamic Jihad lists of personnel details, salaries and militant training courses, phone directories and injury reports.

“These documents serve as proof of the integration of Hamas terrorists within the Qatari Al Jazeera media network,” the military alleged.

Al Jazeera said: “The network views these fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”

Al Jazeera has said the Israeli actions against it were criminal, draconian and irresponsible and that the latest allegations were “part of a wider pattern of hostility” towards it.

The network says it has no affiliation with fighting groups and has accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing several of its journalists in the Gaza conflict, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza AlDahdooh.