When The Jewish Edition reported on the first 10 names released in the IDF’s “Press Files,” those cases already raised serious questions about the international media’s Gaza news operation.
It turns out those 10 were only the beginning.
On October 1, the IDF announced that following an extensive investigation, it had identified 170 Gaza residents killed during the war who were presented as journalists or media workers but had actually served in terrorist organizations, primarily Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
According to the IDF, the evidence includes intelligence information, open-source material, interrogations, documents produced by the terrorist organizations themselves and documents recovered by Israeli troops inside Gaza.
The military has created a dedicated IDF “Press Files” database containing the names and photographs of those identified, along with their terrorist affiliations, positions and evidence that can be publicly released.
The IDF says the purpose of the disclosure is to challenge years of claims that Israel has been deliberately killing journalists in Gaza.
AFSI Insight
The IDF’s identification of 170 Gaza residents presented as journalists who were also members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or other terrorist organizations raises serious questions about the reliability of wartime reporting from Gaza
AFSI believes international media organizations must be held accountable for their vetting practices. A press credential does not erase terrorist affiliation, and journalists who simultaneously serve terrorist organizations cannot automatically be treated as neutral civilian reporters. The international media must confront how terrorist propaganda was allowed to enter the global news cycle—and ensure that the public is not misled about Israel’s conduct in defending itself.