The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is pushing back against claims that it purposely targets journalists in Gaza, stating that individuals "presented as innocent journalists" were actually in Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other terrorist organizations .
"They presented themselves as legitimate media professionals while serving terrorist organizations that regularly use propaganda and psychological warfare," the IDF stated on its website .
"Journalists are expected to report the unbiased truth," the IDF continued. "Yet these individuals concealed a fundamental truth about themselves: their own roles within military wings of terrorist organizations."
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The IDF noted that targeting journalists is a violation of international law, but said that many articles, opinion pieces and reports have misled the public.
As a result, the IDF launched an "in-depth investigation based on a wide range of intelligence sources, including open-source information, documents gathered in the field, interrogations of military operatives by Israeli intelligence bodies," to determine that claims the group violated international law do not tell the full story.
The IDF listed 170 alleged military operatives who were reportedly working as journalists. For each person, the IDF lists the news outlet where the individual claimed to work, including some Western media organizations, while also listing the terror organization they have been linked to.
For example, a person called Yaqoub Anan Mohammed Al-Barsh reportedly worked as a journalist for Gaza’s Namaa Radio but allegedly also held a position as a squad commander in the Military Propaganda Department of Hamas .
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Another person, Maysara Ahmed Salah Salah, reportedly worked as a journalist for Quds News Network but was allegedly also a military operative for Hamas. Many of the 170 alleged military operatives identified by the IDF are seen in pictures wearing both press badges and holding weapons.
Of the 170 individuals identified, 118 were operatives in Hamas, 49 in the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, one in the Lords of the Desert Terrorist Organization and two in the Popular Resistance Committees. All 170 have been killed.
Hamas launched a war with an unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of approximately 1, 200 people, with Israeli civilians among those targeted. Hundreds of civilians were massacred at an outdoor music festival, others were slaughtered inside their homes, and Hamas took over 250 hostages in the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust .
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At least 17 of the individuals named by the IDF as terrorists masquerading as journalists were part of the group that infiltrated Israel during the Oct. 7 attacks , according to an IDF official.
Other alleged terrorists posing as journalists have been honored by Reporters Without Borders, been named in complaints to the International Criminal Court and even used by the United Nations to condemn Israel, according to the IDF.
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"Over the past several months, a recurring pattern has been identified in which the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations published information indicating, after the fact, that some of those killed who had been presented to the world as journalists and media personnel were in fact military operatives in the military wings of terrorist organizations. This information emerged after the false narrative that the IDF deliberately targets journalists had already taken hold internationally," the IDF official told Fox News Digital .
"Throughout the war, this narrative became one of the most frequently cited arguments against Israel," the continued. "It appeared in reports by international media outlets, human rights organizations, international institutions, and politicians, without distinguishing between journalists carrying out their professional duties and those who simultaneously operated as military operatives in terrorist organizations."