False Narrative: The IDF Targets Journalists

More journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7 than in any conflict in recent memory, according to organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This figure has been cited widely as evidence that the IDF deliberately targets the press.

The facts are more complicated. Understanding them requires examining who is counted, who controls access to Gaza, and what international law says about journalists who participate in combat.

A foundational claim in the narrative is that Israel bans foreign journalists from Gaza. The reality:

• Gaza has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Hamas controls all movement inside Gaza, all access points within Gaza, and who may work as a journalist inside the territory.

• Israel controls the Kerem Shalom crossing for goods, and the Erez crossing for people, both of which were closed or restricted after October 7 for security reasons.

• Since October 2023, Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza except on IDF-escorted embeds; the Foreign Press Association petitioned Israel's Supreme Court, and the government has argued the ban should remain for security reasons. Inside Gaza, Hamas also restricts and pressures local journalists.

Israel has restricted embedded access for some reporters and required coordination with the IDF for access to areas of active operations — a practice common to every military in every modern conflict. This is not equivalent to banning the press.

The CPJ and Reporters Without Borders counts include everyone who held press credentials or identified as a journalist at the time of death. They do not exclude:

• Hamas-affiliated media operatives — Hamas operates its own media arm (Al-Aqsa TV, various Gaza-based outlets). Staff of these organizations are counted as journalists.
• Individuals documented as having direct ties to Hamas as military or intelligence operatives who also held press credentials.
• People killed in active combat zones where they were present alongside combatants.
• Al Jazeera journalists, whose employer is Qatari state media with documented ties to Hamas leadership.

CPJ itself notes that it counts deaths where journalism was a "confirmed" motive — but in a warzone where journalists and combatants operate in the same spaces, and where Hamas operatives frequently hold press credentials, the methodology cannot verify whether the credential holder was acting as press or as a combatant at the moment of death.

Multiple cases have been documented of individuals counted as journalists who had direct Hamas affiliations:

• Hassan Eslaiah (AP): Photographed with Hamas political chief Yahya Sinwar. Present at the October 7 attack. AP terminated its relationship with him after HonestReporting's investigation.
• Hamza Al-Dahdouh (journalist son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh) and freelancer Mustafa Thuraya were killed in an Israeli strike on their car on Jan 7, 2024. The IDF said they were operating a drone in a way that endangered troops and were with "terrorist elements"; a Washington Post investigation found no evidence they were doing anything other than journalism that day, and CPJ called for an independent probe. (Separately, Wael's wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an October 2023 strike.)
• MEMRI has documented cases of Al Jazeera journalists filming themselves participating in or present at Hamas military operations.

Presenting all of these deaths as evidence of a policy of targeting the press requires treating Hamas media operatives and Hamas-embedded stringers as equivalent to independent journalists — a conflation the casualty figures depend on.

• A Reuters investigation concluded an Israeli tank crew killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah in southern Lebanon on Oct 13, 2023; Amnesty and HRW reached similar conclusions.
• On Aug 10, 2025, Israel acknowledged deliberately striking Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, alleging he led a Hamas cell; CPJ says Israel provided no credible evidence.
• On Aug 25, 2025, Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital killed about 20 people, including five journalists working with Reuters, AP and Al Jazeera; Netanyahu called it a "tragic mishap".

Under international humanitarian law — specifically Additional Protocol I, Article 79 — journalists in armed conflict are protected civilians unless they take direct part in hostilities. A journalist who:

• Carries and uses a weapon
• Transmits military intelligence
• Participates in or assists an attack
• Embeds with a military force and operates as part of it

...loses civilian protection and may be treated as a combatant.

This is not a loophole. It is the foundational principle of distinction in the laws of armed conflict: civilian protection depends on civilian conduct. A press vest does not confer protected status on someone who is functionally a combatant.

The Israeli government has stated in multiple cases that individuals killed while wearing press vests were targeted because of their role in Hamas military operations, not because they were journalists. These claims have rarely been independently verified, and in some cases independent investigations (e.g. Reuters on Issam Abdallah, the Washington Post on Hamza Al-Dahdouh) found evidence contradicting them.