IDF names 10 slain Gaza journalists it says served in Hamas and PIJ

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel's military, published on October 1, 2026 the names of ten Palestinians killed during the war in the Gaza Strip who had been described publicly as journalists or media workers, and whom the military says also belonged to the armed wings of militant organisations. In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the IDF said the disclosures followed what it called extensive research, and that it would reveal "an unprecedented number" of such cases.

According to The Times of Israel, the first ten cases appear on a dedicated IDF website, and each entry lists the person's name and role together with civil and military identification numbers. The military said the individuals were linked mainly to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and that a large number of additional cases would be published within hours.

What the IDF has published so far

The material was released across several IDF channels within a short window on the same morning. On its X account, the military posted a thread headed with the claim that 10 people had posed as journalists, saying it had documented proof of their ties to militant groups and that these cases were "only the beginning".

Individual posts in the thread set out each case in a standard format. One entry names Asem Adli Ahmed Al-Barsh, whom the IDF says reportedly worked for the Palestinian radio station Al-Rai and was an operative in the military wing of Hamas. The post gives his military ID as 199069. Another names Hassan Majdi Ibrahim Abu Warda, described as having reportedly worked for the Barq Gaza news agency. The IDF says he was a sniper in the Northern Gaza Brigade of the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and lists his military ID as 1662.

The Hebrew-language Telegram channel Abu Ali Express shared a link to the English-language site, which sits under the title "The Press Files" on the IDF's website, along with a collage of the first ten people named. The Hebrew news channel News.co.il also reported the release and the military's promise to publish more cases.

The groups named

Hamas is the Islamist movement that governed the Gaza Strip, the coastal territory bordering Israel and Egypt, and it maintains an armed wing. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a separate militant organisation operating in Gaza with its own armed wing. The IDF entries distinguish between the two, assigning each named individual to one group and to a specific position.

Why the military says it is doing this

The release is framed by the IDF as a response to criticism. In its X thread, the military said it has repeatedly been accused of targeting journalists, and argued that wearing a press vest does not change a person's status as a militant. Abu Ali Express described the site as an effort to counter claims abroad that Israel is killing journalists, and noted that Palestinians say Israel has killed hundreds of journalists during the war.

The reports describe the identified individuals in different terms. The IDF puts the word journalists in quotation marks throughout its posts. The Times of Israel uses the combined description journalist/terror operative for the published cases. The IDF's own entries say each person "reportedly worked" for the outlet named, wording that leaves their journalistic role as a reported claim rather than a confirmed one.

What the reports do not say

The material available covers only what the IDF itself has released and how Israeli outlets relayed it. None of the reports includes a response from the media organisations named, such as Al-Rai radio or the Barq Gaza news agency, or from relatives of the people listed, Palestinian journalists' bodies or press freedom groups.

The reports do not describe the evidence behind each identification. The Times of Israel said the IDF intended to publish names alongside intelligence material, but the published excerpt is cut off before that is explained. The IDF says it holds documented proof; no report says that this evidence has been independently examined.

The reports also do not give the dates, places or circumstances in which the ten people were killed, or whether they were engaged in reporting or in militant activity at the time. Only two of the ten names appear in the material reviewed here. It is not stated how many further cases the IDF plans to publish beyond its description of the number as unprecedented.