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

This is a highly contested claim, with significant disagreement between Israeli sources and international press freedom organizations.

The claim that a majority were linked to terror groups:

The main source for this claim is Israel's own institutions. A study by the Israeli 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 found 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. That 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.

More recently, the IDF itself released a similar database. In October 2026, the Israeli military 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, including 17 individuals whom the IDF said participated directly in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks. Per the IDF's own breakdown, 118 of the 170 were members of Hamas' military wing, 49 belonged to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, one was affiliated with Adonei HaShmama and two with the Popular Resistance Committees.

Pushback and skepticism from press freedom groups:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the main independent tracker of journalist deaths, has acknowledged errors but strongly disputes the "majority" framing. Journalists are generally considered protected civilians under international law — journalists are considered civilians under international law regardless of their political views or affiliations, unless they participate in hostilities.

CPJ has removed some names after evidence emerged, but on a far smaller scale than Israel claims. In its most recent review, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that 19 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire who it had previously identified as journalists or media workers were actually militants or participants in combat. It also removed another three Palestinians from its list because their role as journalists could not be established, and reinstated six cases, including two Israeli journalists killed in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Earlier, CPJ explained its standard: it 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 engaging in combat, and this applies to all countries and conflicts. Under that review, CPJ removed eight names from its "Killed" database because they were later established to have been members of Hamas or PIJ, with a further 12 individuals removed for other reasons. That's a total of roughly 20 names removed out of hundreds on its list — far short of a "majority."

Even in high-profile individual cases, there is active dispute. In the case of Al Jazeera's Anas Al-Sharif, the IDF claimed Al-Sharif was a Hamas operative – an allegation rejected by Al Jazeera and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Bottom line:

The "majority were terrorists" claim originates almost entirely from Israeli government/military sources and Israel-aligned research centers (Meir Amit Center, IDF, and outlets like Honest Reporting), which cite Hamas's own martyr obituaries and seized documents as evidence. Independent organizations like CPJ have confirmed some individual cases but have identified a much smaller number of problematic listings — around 20 out of 200+ names — and continue to classify most of the killed individuals as civilian journalists protected under international law. There is no independent, non-Israeli verification confirming the 54–60% figures; those come from Israeli sources whose methodology (reliance on contested "seized documents" and Hamas's own propaganda obituaries) is itself disputed by press freedom groups and has been criticized for potentially including people pressured or falsely claimed as militants by Hamas after death, or targeted based on circumstantial evidence like family/social ties.

So: this is not an independently verified, consensus fact — it is a disputed claim pushed primarily by Israeli sources, which press freedom organizations like CPJ have only partially corroborated on a much smaller scale.