The IDF revealed on Thursday that 170 individuals who were misleadingly presented as civilian “journalists” killed in strikes on Gaza were actually affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other terrorist organizations.
The journalists' identities and terrorist affiliations were verified using documentation released by the terrorist organizations themselves and materials recovered by Israeli troops during Gaza operations, the military stated.
The IDF launched a website dedicated to compiling information regarding terrorists found to be misrepresenting themselves as civilian journalists and combating accusations that the IDF deliberately targets civilians working in the media.
Earlier on Thursday, the IDF released a statement highlighting ten journalists who doubled as Hamas and PIJ terrorists.
The terrorists, some of whom worked for news outlets such as Reuters, Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency, and Palestine Now News Agency, operated as snipers, commanders, trainers, and propaganda agents, among other roles.
According to the IDF, some of the alleged journalists infiltrated Israel and participated in Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
Deaths of Hamas, PIJ journalists cited in complaints against Israel
The deaths of the alleged civilian journalists were cited in complaints and condemnations launched against Israel.
Hamas terrorist Asem Adli Ahmed al-Barsh, an alleged journalist for Palestinian Al-Rai Radio, was named by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a December 2023 complaint to the International Criminal Court.
RSF accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilian journalists and did not mention Barsh’s status as a Hamas terrorist in the complaint.
RSF also engraved the name of Mohammed Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Abu Sharia, a PIJ sniper who allegedly worked for Palestinian Shams News Agency, in a memorial dedicated to journalists who were killed between June 2024 and June 2025.
In 2024, then UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay condemned the killing of another Hamas terrorist, Mohammed Manhal Ahmed Abu Armana, whom the IDF identified as Hamas’s Rafah Brigade Propaganda Department Commander.
A number of the terrorists named by the IDF were included in the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ's) database of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza since 2023.