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

This is a highly contested claim, not an established fact. Here's what the available evidence shows:

The claim that a majority were linked to terrorist groups comes from Israeli sources:

A report by the Israel-based Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center 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 that at least 157 of them — roughly 60 percent — were members of terror groups or clearly affiliated with them, including 104 linked to Hamas and 45 to Islamic Jihad. The center said its conclusions are based on public records, Palestinian media reports, and Hamas documents seized by the Israel Defense Forces during ground operations in Gaza.

Separately, in October 2026 the IDF itself released a database identifying 170 Palestinians killed during the Gaza war who it claims were at one point members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations — despite being members of the media or journalists. According to that database, 118 of those identified were members of Hamas' military wing, while 49 were members of PIJ. Two were affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees and one with another terrorist organization. Seventeen of the people on the list invaded Israeli territory in the October 7, 2023, attack, the army says.

This claim is strongly disputed by Palestinian media, press-freedom groups, and independent analysts:

Palestinian media organizations have rejected the IDF's claims, arguing that Israeli military allegations cannot by themselves determine whether a deceased journalist was involved in military activity.

An independent review by a Palestinian political analyst found significant evidentiary problems: in 59 cases, the IDF did not provide any evidence for its claim that a journalist was a member of Hamas or PIJ other than that the claim was "based on multiple intelligence sources." In at least one case, the analyst argued the IDF's own evidence undermined its claim — for photojournalist Hassan Aslih, whom Israel labeled a "military operative," the 2019 Hamas document provided as evidence for this lists him as a "photographer" involved with "media services."

The Committee to Protect Journalists has similarly criticized this pattern, noting it has seen "a disturbing pattern in this war and in the decades prior of Israel accusing journalists of being active combatants and terrorists without providing credible evidence."

International press-freedom organizations have continued to describe large numbers of Gaza journalist deaths as attacks on media workers rather than combatants — the International Federation of Journalists has described Israel's nearly-three-year-old war in Gaza as "the deadliest period in the history of journalism" and cataloged at least 240 journalists and media workers killed.

Bottom line: Israeli government and government-aligned sources (the IDF and the Meir Amit Center) have published figures claiming roughly 60% of journalists killed had terrorist affiliations, based largely on captured documents and intelligence assessments. However, this is not an independently verified or widely accepted fact — Palestinian journalism groups, press-freedom organizations, and at least one independent reviewer have challenged the evidence as thin, selectively presented, or in some cases contradicted by the very documents cited. There is no neutral, independently verified consensus confirming that a majority of Gazan journalists killed were terrorists.