IDF Says It has Documented Terror Connections for 170 ‘Journalists’ Killed in Gaza

The Israeli Defense Forces has created a database of 170 people who were described as slain journalists but were actually military operatives to combat allegations it targets journalists in Gaza.The launch of the website comes after the IDF said it carried out an in-depth investigation based on a wide range of intelligence sources, including open-source information, documents gathered in Gaza, and interrogations of military operatives.The military said 118 of the named journalists belonged to Hamas and another 49 belonged to Islamic Jihad. Some on the list had worked for international media outlets such as Reuters while also operating as terrorist commanders, trainers, or snipers.The IDF called out the Committee to Protect Journalists, for its list it maintains of journalists killed worldwide. A number of the names released by the IDF are in the committee’s database of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza. “You might want to update your list…,” the IDF said in an X post.The committee, a press freedom group, lists 191 journalists killed in “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”Leslie Kajomovitz tracks cases of alleged journalists with connections to Hamas. She told the Sun that there are a couple “major updates” in the new Israeli database. “There’s a few, for example, that hadn’t been exposed to the fact that they participated on October 7th,” Ms. Kajomovitz said.The release included documentation found in Gaza that provided evidence to prove claims by some families that their relatives were members of Hamas.The Committee to Protect Journalists uses a different methodology when it comes to Israel, Ms. Kajomovitz said. She said when it comes to Gaza, the group uses a presumption that everybody who died — who happened to be a journalist — died because of their journalism. She says everywhere else in the world, the group requires evidence that the person died either while on an assignment or in retaliation. “So in these cases, the opposite,” Ms. Kajomovitz said. “If you evaluate the list, based on the actual methodology that CPJ uses worldwide, except with Israel, only two names would actually pass the list,” she added.Ms. Kajomovitz isn’t convinced Israel’s new evidence will convince the committee to update its list. “I think what’s going to make them remove something is public pressure,” she said.The committee, in June, did remove the names of eight people from the list after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published obituaries that listed some individuals originally identified as journalists as terrorists.The group said it would conduct a review of its database of journalists killed during Israel’s war against Hamas. “CPJ has always been clear that we do not include anyone in our data sets if there is evidence that they were engaging in combat or inciting imminent violence,” The chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Jodie Ginsberg, said.“CPJ condemns in no uncertain terms the misrepresentation of combatants as journalists or media workers — or the misuse of ‘Press’ insignia. Such actions endanger every single individual journalist legitimately trying to report,” she added.Last month, the committee removed 22 names, reinstated 4 Palestinians, and reclassified 12 other names. The group has not commented on the new IDF database and did not immediately remove any other names.

IDF Says It has Documented Terror Connections for 170 ‘Journalists’ Killed in Gaza

IDF Says It has Documented Terror Connections for 170 ‘Journalists’ Killed in Gaza

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