Were a majority of the Gazan journalists killed since October 7th, 2023 linked to terrorist organizations?

This is a contested claim with no settled consensus — the answer depends heavily on the source.

The claim of a "majority"

The most prominent source for this claim is the Israeli-aligned Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which published a study asserting that a majority of Gaza-based journalists killed since the outbreak of the war were operatives in, or closely affiliated with, terrorist organizations — primarily Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Specifically, the study examined 266 individuals identified as journalists or media workers killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and November 30, 2025, finding that at least 157 of them — roughly 60 percent — were members of terror groups or clearly affiliated with them. The IDF has made similar claims, stating 170 individuals who were misleadingly presented as civilian "journalists" killed in strikes on Gaza were actually affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other terrorist organizations, with 118 of the journalists active in Hamas's military wing, 49 in Islamic Jihad, two in the Popular Resistance Committees, and one in the Mujahideen Brigades.

What press-freedom groups say

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) — the leading international tracker — strongly disputes that a majority were terrorists. CPJ has acknowledged removing some names after new evidence emerged, but maintains a much lower figure. After an extensive review, CPJ said 19 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire who it had previously identified as journalists were actually militants, and after review it says Israeli forces have killed 191 Palestinian journalists and media workers since the start of the war. In total, CPJ has removed 27 people from its list for participating in combat or belonging to a militant group, and nine more for other reasons — a small fraction of its overall list, far short of a "majority." CPJ's position is that it does not include anyone in its data sets if there is evidence they were engaging in combat, consistent with international humanitarian law, which considers journalists affiliated with non-state actors to be civilians provided they do not directly participate in hostilities.

Counter-audits of CPJ

However, an independent audit by the media-watchdog group HonestReporting, reported by the Washington Free Beacon, went further, claiming CPJ still includes at least 120 names linked to Hamas and other terror factions on its list — well over half the 209-person list, with about 56 of the names still on the list identified as active, violent militants when they died, according to the audit. CPJ has rejected many of these specific allegations.

The bottom line

There is no neutral, universally accepted figure confirming a "majority." Israeli military and pro-Israel research bodies assert roughly 60% had terror-group ties, based largely on IDF intelligence and militant groups' own martyr obituaries/propaganda. CPJ, the UN special rapporteur, and other press-freedom bodies dispute this characterization, arguing Israel has "spread disinformation about journalists being linked to militants" and that it failed to prove such claims, and that only a small minority (roughly a dozen-plus out of 200+) have been verified as combatants by CPJ's own stricter standard. So whether "a majority" were linked to terrorist organizations depends on which source's methodology and definitions you accept — it is an actively disputed, unresolved question rather than an established fact.