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

Short answer: This is a contested claim, not an established fact.

There are competing analyses with very different conclusions:

The "majority linked to terror" claim comes from a study by an Israeli think tank, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. That study examined the identities of 266 individuals identified as journalists or media workers killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and November 30, 2025, and concluded at least 157 of them—roughly 60 percent—were members of terror groups or clearly affiliated with them. The researchers said they based this on the argument that under international law, anyone participating in fighting—even gathering intelligence, as journalistic reports sometimes do—becomes a legitimate target, and that terror groups deliberately exploit journalistic status.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the leading international press-freedom watchdog, has documented far higher casualty figures and does not find that a majority were combatants. CPJ explicitly states its methodology removes names from its database if subsequent evidence shows individuals were not journalists or media workers, were not active in those capacities at the time of their deaths, or were directly participating in hostilities.

CPJ has made some corrections after review, but nowhere near the scale the Israeli think-tank study claims. In September 2026, CPJ announced that 19 Palestinians it had previously identified as journalists or media workers were actually militants or participants in combat, and it removed another three Palestinians from its list because their role as journalists could not be established. In total, since the Oct. 7 attack, CPJ has removed a total of 27 people from its list of slain journalists after finding that they participated in combat or belonged to a militant group. After that review, CPJ says Israeli forces have killed 191 Palestinian journalists and media workers since the start of the war in Gaza.

27 removals out of roughly 200+ documented deaths is nowhere near a majority — it's about 12-13%.

Key points of dispute:

Bottom line

The "majority were linked to terrorism" figure traces to a single Israeli intelligence-linked think tank study using a broad definition of "affiliation" (including working for Hamas-run media outlets) and evidence that is largely unverifiable by independent parties. The primary international journalist-tracking organization (CPJ), after its own internal review, found that only a small fraction (roughly 12-13%) of those it had listed were combatants or militants — not a majority. So the claim is disputed and depends heavily on which definition of "linked to terrorism" and which source's methodology you accept.