IDF says 170 Gazans described as journalists were Hamas and PIJ members

The Israeli military said on Thursday that 170 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip during the war, who were later presented as journalists and media personnel, had in fact been members of armed groups, chiefly Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). According to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) cited by Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian, the army said it reached this conclusion "following extensive research" and described the 170 as having served as operatives for terror organisations in the Strip.

The IDF published names and the roles it attributes to those individuals, Ynet reported, along with the media outlets it says employed them. The army's official account on X framed the release as exposing what it called the truth behind "these so-called journalists". The Israeli outlet News.co.il circulated a group poster showing the 170 people the military named.

What the military is claiming

The core claim is that a large number of people counted among journalists killed in Gaza were active in the armed wings of Hamas and PIJ. Ynet reported that the military had recently identified cases in which the armed groups themselves acknowledged these people as members of their military wings, and in some instances publicly took pride in that affiliation. The IDF's release, in Ynet's account, is an effort to push back against criticism of Israel over the deaths of media workers by naming individuals and the organisations they worked for.

The Jerusalem Post characterised the IDF's position as saying the 170 had been misrepresented as innocent journalists. The material accompanying that report was credited to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, the military's official press office.

The dispute behind the announcement

The deaths of journalists in Gaza have been one of the most contested aspects of the war internationally. Ynet described a view, now widely held abroad, that Israel kills journalists systematically, and its headline referred to Reuters, CNN and the BBC in that context. The reports provided do not explain in detail how those three organisations relate to the 170 people named, whether as employers of some of them or as outlets that reported on their deaths.

For readers less familiar with the actors involved: the Gaza Strip is the coastal Palestinian territory bordering Israel and Egypt, where Israel has been fighting armed groups. Hamas is the Islamist movement that has controlled Gaza and maintains an armed wing. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a separate, smaller armed Islamist group also active in the Strip. Israel, along with a number of other governments, designates both as terrorist organisations.

Who reported what

Every report available to us traces the substance of the claim to the IDF itself. Emanuel Fabian relayed the army's statement and its wording. Ynet added the account of how the military assembled the list and its framing of the international debate. The Jerusalem Post reported the figure and the IDF's characterisation of the dead. News.co.il shared the poster. The IDF's own post on X restated the military's position. None of the reports we reviewed cites an independent body that has checked the list.

What the reports do not say

Several important points are not addressed in the material available to us:

• The individual evidence. The reports say names and roles were released, but do not set out the evidence for each person or say how many cases rest on statements by the armed groups themselves versus Israeli intelligence.
• The overall count. The reports do not say how the 170 compare with the total number of journalists and media workers reported killed in Gaza, or which tallies the IDF was responding to.
• The news organisations' responses. There is no reaction in the reports from Reuters, CNN, the BBC or any other outlet named by the military, nor from press freedom groups.
• Whether people held both roles. The reports do not address whether some of those named worked in media while also being members of armed groups, or how the military distinguishes between the two.
• Timing. The reports do not specify when each of the 170 was killed or the circumstances of their deaths.

Until those details are published and examined by others, the identification of the 170 as members of Hamas and PIJ remains an assertion of the Israeli military.