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

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

Whether a majority of journalists killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, were linked to terrorist organizations depends heavily on who you ask — Israeli government-aligned sources say yes, while press-freedom organizations largely dispute this.

The claim of a "majority"

The most cited source for this claim is the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli research institute. A study by this center asserts that a majority of Gaza-based journalists killed since the outbreak of the war were operatives in, or closely affiliated with, terrorist organizations, examining 266 individuals identified as journalists or media workers killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and November 30, 2025, and finding at least 157 of them—roughly 60 percent—were members of terror groups or clearly affiliated with them. This breakdown included at least 47 belonging to Hamas's military wing and 45 linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, including 18 confirmed operatives.

Separately, an investigation by the UK's Telegraph newspaper found that an examination of a BBC Arabic report listing more than 180 journalists killed during the war found that 53 of those named had ties to Hamas or other terrorist groups — a smaller fraction (about 29%) than the "majority" claim.

What the leading press-freedom watchdog (CPJ) says

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the main international body tracking these deaths, has conducted its own reviews and reached a very different conclusion:

A watchdog critique from HonestReporting disputed CPJ's own audit, claiming that although the CPJ review removed almost two dozen individuals who participated in combat, 53 percent of those still listed have terrorist ties — but this is a partisan advocacy group's assessment of CPJ's data, not an independent finding.

Key context and caveats

Bottom line

The "majority linked to terrorism" claim originates primarily from an Israeli research institute and has been amplified by pro-Israel outlets and officials, including Israel's Foreign Ministry. The primary international journalist-safety watchdog (CPJ) has acknowledged some errors and removed several dozen names after new evidence emerged, but explicitly disputes the framing that a majority of those killed were combatants, and Israel's specific allegations in individual cases have often lacked public evidence and been denied by the journalists' employers and families. Given the sharply conflicting sources — one from a body with an ideological stake in vindicating Israeli military conduct, versus an independent press-freedom watchdog reaching a different conclusion — this claim should be treated as contested rather than settled fact.