The Iran war has put Al Jazeera on high alert — building a secret backup studio amid fears of a potential Israeli cyberattack on its swanky multimillion-dollar headquarters in Doha, Qatar, The Post can exclusively reveal.
Following the Feb. 28 start of the conflict, the state broadcaster — long accused of being a “Hamas mouthpiece” by Israeli leaders — set up the facility at a secret location inside the capital city so it could keep running in the event its HQ gets knocked out, according to three insiders.
Executives have also drafted a detailed blueprint to shift wall-to-wall coverage of the Iran war to backup operations in London and Washington if an attack cripples broadcasts in Al Jazeera’s home country, the people briefed on the matter said.
Senior producers have rehearsed handoffs and are looking to pre-positioned staff in case Doha goes dark, while the secret backup studio would be able to carry out “very basic” broadcast operations with on-site training now being rolled out for employees based in Qatar.
Ibrahim Helal, director of news at Al Jazeera English, cited threats from Israel in a town hall meeting with staffers last week, which the outlet believes could even include an all-out airstrike, two sources said.
They added that the risk of an Iranian projectile punching through Qatar’s air defense system has not been ruled out as the US-Israeli war with Iran continues in its fifth week.
“Some people are really panicking and asking to work from home. Bosses are mainly worried about cyberattacks from the Israelis, but the missile threat isn’t deemed to be zero,” said one of the sources.
“Scared” staffers also described how the walls shake at the Al Jazeera complex when the Gulf State’s US-made Patriots knock missiles out of the sky.
“Doha is such a tiny city. We can feel and hear the studio shake whenever there is an interception overhead,” said a journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But when blasts are happening, people just keep working.”
The Post has sought comment from Al Jazeera, the Israel Defense Forces and Mossad.
Iran — not Israel — has launched strikes on its former regional ally Qatar since the war erupted, according to reports.
In mid-March, Iranian missiles obliterated sections of Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial site — the world’s largest LNG hub and the crown jewel of the Gulf nation’s economy — in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Iran’s own gas fields.
The IDF has also struck Qatari soil in the past, attacking a residential Doha compound in September 2025 that killed six Hamas operatives while failing to eliminate the Oct. 7, 2023 terror group’s top leadership.
In 2024, the IDF accused six Al Jazeera journalists of being operatives for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups, a charge that Al Jazeera strongly denied.
Al Jazeera’s secret security preparations come after Iranian state media briefly posted what appeared to be a direct threat in Arabic to hammer the outlet’s main offices in Doha.
The chilling message was deleted within hours, but not before it rattled executives and the rank-and-file at the network, which includes ex-CNN anchor Adrian Finighan and onetime BBC star Darren Jordon on its roster.
The alarming post, which surfaced overnight on March 21, warned Al Jazeera journalists they were now “legitimate targets.”
It even included a map pinpointing the network’s headquarters in Qatar.
Insiders overheard one panicked producer exclaiming loudly that Saturday night as the alleged Iranian threat spread across social media: “Don’t bomb us, we’re on your side!”
“To the citizens and residents of Doha,” the message read, “In light of the use of this area for the deployment of American forces and interests, as well as incitement through the media against the Iranian people, this area has become a legitimate target. We ask everyone to leave this area as soon as possible.”
The post also appeared to reference the sprawling US air base at Al Udeid — a central nerve center for any US air operations that Iran reportedly struck.
Government mouthpiece outlets in Tehran later claimed later claimed that the message was a hoax, branding it as “a blatant lie.”
Al Jazeera has been accused for years of carrying water for Hamas, the Iranian regime and its proxies, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, giving these enemies of the US and its allies sympathetic airtime while downplaying their atrocities.
In February, the Washington Free Beacon obtained a leaked copy of Al Jazeera’s style guide that has a blanket ban on calling the Islamic State a terrorist organization. The word “Islamist” was also reportedly verboten.
Al Jazeera’s gleaming glass-and-steel Doha HQ has long been a symbol of Qatar’s global clout. It also houses its former sister company, beIN Sports, a global sports broadcaster.
Aside from more pressing worries about security, The Post has also learned that the newsroom is split down the middle over what to do about the large numbers of stray cats currently shacked up on what the network refers to as its “campus.”
Its Arabic-language channel was founded in 1996 with a $150 million investment from the then-Emir of Qatar, before Doha launched Al Jazeera English in 2006 to rival CNN and the BBC.
The Qatari outlet opened its check book to poach some famous faces at the time, including the late British journalist and Richard Nixon interviewer, Sir David Frost.
