Gaza’s ‘Journalists’: When Journalism Becomes a Weapon of Jihad

by Bassam Tawil•  Gatestone Institute  •  October 5, 2026

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• How many of those described as “journalists” were also members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)?

• The question has become particularly urgent after the release by the Israel Defense Forces of a database identifying 170 Palestinians killed during the war whom the IDF says were also members of Hamas, PIJ, or other terrorist organizations.
• According to the IDF database the people identified as terrorist operatives were… affiliated with international news organizations, including Reuters, AP, CNN, BBC, AFP, Le Monde, and Anadolu Agency, and Al-Jazeera.
• Did these organizations know that some of their Gaza-based employees, freelancers, or contributors were members of Hamas or PIJ? Did they conduct background checks? Did Hamas or PIJ influence their reporting? Did the positions of these journalists within Hamas or PIJ give them access to information that was then presented to international audiences as independent journalism?
• Most importantly, how many people whose deaths were cited as evidence of Israel’s alleged campaign against journalists were actually participating in the war?
• [T]oo often, the word “journalist” has been treated as if it were synonymous with “neutral”. It is not. Add to that now the word for “pilot”.
• The international media cannot demand that Israel be held accountable for every journalist killed in the Gaza Strip while at the same time refusing to investigate if any were members of the terrorist organizations fighting Israel.
• The world has been told to trust Gaza’s “journalists.” The evidence now demands that the world start asking: journalists for whom?
• What we have seen in the Gaza Strip over the past three years is “journalism Jihad” in the service of “holy war.”

For nearly three years, the international media has repeatedly presented the deaths of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip as evidence that Israel is deliberately targeting journalists in an effort to prevent the world from seeing what is happening there.

This accusation deserves serious investigation. So does another question that has received considerably less attention: How many of those described as “journalists” were also members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)?

The question has become particularly urgent after the release by the Israel Defense Forces of a database identifying 170 Palestinians killed during the war whom the IDF says were also members of Hamas, PIJ, or other terrorist organizations.

According to the IDF, the database contains military identification numbers, ranks, unit affiliations, photographs, and other information about the alleged journalists.

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