More than half of the Palestinian journalists killed in the Gaza Strip during Operation Iron Swords were affiliated with terrorist organizations (Full version)

Introduction^[1]

• The government media office of Hamas in the Gaza Strip reported that as of February 18, 2024, 131 Palestinian journalists had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war (October 7, 2023). The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center’s comprehensive examination of the 131 names revealed that approximately 60% were operatives in or affiliated with the terrorist organizations, Fatah or the Palestinian Authority.
• Hamas alleges that Israel deliberately attacks journalists to “hide the truth” and prevent the disclosure of events in the Gaza Strip during the war. Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas member, claimed that attacks on press personnel covering the war were “terrorism” which could not hide Israel’s “crimes” (Palinfo, December 16, 2023).
• The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, which operates in Ramallah and represents journalists in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, reported that one of the cases to be submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) dealt with attacks on Palestinian journalists during the war.

• The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also strongly condemned the [alleged] attacks on journalists and members of the media (PIJ media information bureau Telegram channel, January 7, 2024). In a previous announcement, it claimed the [alleged] attacks on journalists were intended to hide from the world the “crimes” committed by the IDF forces and to murder eyewitnesses who document the “Palestinian genocide” in Gaza (PIJ media information bureau Telegram channel, December 15, 2023).
• On December 18, 2023, a press conference was held by a number of prominent journalists in the northern Gaza Strip in the wake of the destruction caused by IDF attacks. They said that despite the pain caused by the deaths of many of their colleagues, they would continue covering the events. The same trend is reflected in Palestinian cartoons which claim that media personnel reveal the “truth.” 

• Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip operate affiliated media outlets. Hamas operates an array of prominent, senior journalists who assist it with ‘”media information” and propaganda activities, conveying messages and reports to residents and others in the Gaza Strip, and abroad. Some work both for Hamas and as correspondents for foreign media. For example, during Operation Iron Swords, many journalists were observed closely covering the battle areas with permission from Hamas. During the October 7^th terrorist attack and massacre, it became obvious that Hamas-affiliated personnel had received advance warning of the attack, and entered the Israeli villages near the border along with the terrorists, and broadcast their activities live.

• Evidence of how Hamas views the role of its journalists was revealed by Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’ political bureau in the Gaza Strip, at a meeting in Beirut held by the Islamic Radio and Television Union. Its theme was “Messengers of the Truth” and its purpose was to support the media personnel in the Gaza Strip. He said the media war as no less intense than the military or political war, and claimed a journalist should not be neutral, but rather “a fighter for freedom and justice.” He claimed that Hamas, with the power of its media and its” firm stance,” had successfully reversed the image of the battle, for which credit was due first of all to the Palestinian journalists working on the ground, and to the Arab and Muslim correspondents who went “everywhere” and conveyed the “truth” (al-Manar TV website, December 6, 2023).

     
Right: Al-Jazeera correspondent reports on the fighting in the central the Gaza Strip (al-Jazeera YouTube channel, January 9, 2024). Left: Al-Jazeera correspondent reports on the fighting in Khan Yunis (al-Ghad channel, January 9, 2024)

• The importance of the media in Hamas perception is often revealed by Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official. At a press conference held at the opening of the 24^th edition of Iran Media Expo in Tehran he said the media were part of the “campaign” they were waging against Israel and “global arrogance” [the United States]. He added that the confrontation in the media arena was no less dangerous than the confrontation on the battlefield, and that, he claimed, was why Israel [allegedly] attacked media personnel. He noted that during Operation al-Aqsa Flood the media’s most important task was to defeat the “Zionist narrative” of the campaign, but the role of the media was greater and had become the main player in the battle for hearts and minds, and in building the spirit of belonging, sacrifice, steadfastness and “resistance” (IRNA in Arabic, February 18, 2024; ISNA in Arabic, February 18, 2024).

• Avichay Adraee, IDF spokesman for the Arab media, announced that the IDF forces had found the laptop of Muhammad Samir Muhammad Washah in a Hamas base in the northern Gaza Strip. Washah was born in al-Bureij in 1986 and was a correspondent for al-Jazeera Mubasher TV and the al-Jazeera network in the Gaza Strip. The contents of his computer revealed he was also a commander in the anti-tank missile unit of Hamas’ military wing. At the end of 2022, he transferred to R&D in the Hamas anti-aircraft force. Photos were also found on the computer linking him to activities in Hamas’ military wing (Avichay Adraee’s X account, February 11, 2024). Following the IDF spokesman’s announcement, a web surfer published a photo of Washah with Yahya al-Sinwar from his Instagram account.

   
Muhammad Washah’s activities in Hamas’ military
(Avichay Adraee’s X account, February 11, 2024)

    
Right: Muhammad Washah, al-Jazeera Mubasher correspondent (al-Jazeera Mubasher X account, December 12, 2023). Left: Washah with Yahya al-Sinwar in a photo from 2021 (hatem abdulwahid’s X account, February 12, 2024)

• In response, the Hamas government media office in the Gaza Strip issued a statement claiming that the IDF occasionally published “incitement” against various media and Palestinian journalists, and tried to market false narratives in preparation for their elimination. Since the beginning of the war, according to the office, Israel had published photos and videos of journalists and photographers as if that convicted them, but the pictures were taken from news reports prepared by Hamas and previously broadcast on television and by social networks, and they were part of their daily journalistic work on the ground. The office placed full responsibility on Israel for the lives of the Palestinians, and warned the world lest harm come to journalists or doctors, teachers or civil defense operatives. Hamas called on “all the countries of the free world” to pressure Israel to stop its [alleged] “war of extermination” against Palestinian society (Hamas government media office Telegram channel, February 11, 2024).

Methodology

• This study investigates and analyzes and the identity of the Palestinian journalists who were killed in the Gaza Strip during Operation Iron Swords war and categorizes their organizational affiliation. The research was based on the list of journalists published by the Hamas government media office in the Gaza Strip. Further information was obtained from items published in the Palestinian media. A total of 131 male and female names were examined (as of February 19, 2024) and the organizational affiliation was determined according to two criteria: overt, obvious membership in an organization or its military branch, and employment by a media outlet of one of the organizations, which indicated he or she identified with the organization and acted on its behalf. Also examined were the names of journalists affiliated with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.

Analysis

An analysis of the identity of the 131 journalists revealed that least 78 (more than 59%) were active in or affiliated with a terrorist organization. Among them were 13 prominent members of a terrorist organization, Fatah or the Palestinian Authority. Of them 13 were overtly terrorist operatives belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades^[2] and the Popular Resistance Committees, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. It is therefore reasonable to assume their coverage of the events was not objective.

• Of the 78 journalists identified as having organizational affiliation, 44 were identified with Hamas, five were identified as the operatives of the military wing and the rest were employed by or represented Hamas media. Nineteen were affiliated with PIJ, six of them actual PIJ terrorist operatives. One was an al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades operative and another a Popular Resistance Committees operative. Two were affiliated with the Fronts, wone with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the other the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Seven journalists were affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA), four with identified with Fatah, one with Muhammad Dahlan’s faction. As of the publication of this study, no organizational affiliation was found for 53 of the journalists on the list. Also included were journalists whose media outlets could not be located and it is not clear why they were classified as journalists.
• It is not the first time we have dealt with journalists who also had a military role in a terrorist organization, covered operations and wars and worked to influence the battle for hearts and minds, considered of utmost importance by the terrorist organizations. Sometimes, the journalists have been embedded in the military operating on the ground, or members of the propaganda outlets of various military wings. Theoretically, they are immune as journalists during the performance of their duties. For example, many journalists who previously covered operations in the Gaza Strip and the return marches were identified as actively participating in the events, but identified as journalists by PRESS vests. There were also cases in which terrorists wore PRESS vests to carry out terrorist attacks, knowing that the IDF does not attack media personnel.

^[1] Click https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en to subscribe and receive the ITIC's daily updates as well as its other publications.↑
^[2] A terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip which split from Fatah and today has no connection with it. ↑

 

 

Related Articles