Militants, Media, and the Gaza Information War

Militants, Media, and the Gaza Information War

Executive Summary:

• Dozens of Gazans initially identified as journalists have been posthumously honored by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as members of their groups. Contests over civilian and militant identities significantly impact legal assessments, casualty databases, and wartime narratives. 
• These revelations support Israeli airstrike justifications, but Hamas and PIJ seem to place a higher priority on publicly honoring their fallen militants. Both groups do not want to appear to abandon militants who are part of their combined media, political, and military ecosystems.

Since June, there has been increasing scrutiny of Gazans who were initially publicly identified as journalists but have now been posthumously honored in Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) materials as their commanders or fighters. The number of militants using the “journalist” label as cover is now documented to be in the several dozens. This leads to the possibility that Gaza-based journalists—at least before October 7, 2023, if not also after—were generally required to be Hamas or PIJ members in order to operate in the Strip and convey those groups’ narratives via their reporting. In addition, they may have also anticipated that holding a camera or “PRESS” vest would reduce the likelihood of Israel targeting them.

Israel has repeatedly alleged that “journalists” it targets are affiliated with Hamas or PIJ. Press freedom groups and media organizations, however, have countered that such allegations are insufficiently substantiated (Reuters, October 23, 2024; TIME, October 26, 2024). The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), for example, has taken the lead in documenting journalists who have been killed in Gaza in “unprecedented numbers” (AP, August 26, 2025; The Guardian, February 25). At least 30 percent of those roughly 200 journalists have, however, worked for what CPJ itself describes as “Hamas-affiliated” media networks. This includes Maysara Ahmed Salah, who worked for Quds News Network and has since been identified by Hamas in a martyrdom announcement as a Qassam commander (ngo-monitor.org, May 25; X/@Aizenberg55, June 4).

Ahmed Abu Eisha is another example of a militant who used journalism as cover. After his death, PIJ identified him as a platoon commander (X/@Aizenberg55, June 4). At the time of the Israeli strike on his home garden, however, news agencies, journalists, and human rights groups highlighted his case as exemplifying the “systematic crimes against Gaza journalists” (Anadolu Ajansi, July 10, 2025). Another similar case is that of Abdallah Iyad Breis, who was described as an educator for a TV news channel after he was killed on January 8, 2024, in Khan Younis (The Guardian, September 1, 2025). Hamas has, however, since identified Breis in a martyrdom announcement as a commander (X/@Aizenberg55, June 4). 

Israel’s killing of Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali is now perhaps the most controversial case of journalists covering their Hamas or PIJ militant status. On December 26, 2024, an airstrike outside Al-Awda Hospital was reported by Al-Quds Today as killing journalists in a marked press vehicle, but Israel claimed the victims were PIJ militants posing as journalists (Reuters; The Guardian, December 26, 2024). Al-Sheikh Ali was identified more than a year later in a PIJ martyrdom announcement as a commander (X/@Aizenberg55, June 4).

These dozens of cases reveal the contested identities of “civilian” journalists, who—by Hamas and PIJ’s own admission—were, in fact, militants. These distinctions matter for casualty databases, legal assessments, and the credibility of wartime narratives about whether Israel targeted journalists or struck militants operating under media cover. Although Israel benefits from these martyrdom announcements because they seem to support its justifications for airstrikes in Gaza, Hamas and PIJ may still deem honoring these “martyrs” as more important. Both groups do not want to appear to abandon militants posthumously who are part of their combined media, political, and military ecosystems.