Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have recently begun publishing the names of hundreds of fighters killed in the war, including people who had previously been presented to the public as journalists, media workers, athletes, or civilians. The unusual disclosures, reported by The Times of Israel, expose identities that the groups had avoided revealing for a long time.
One prominent case is Ahmed Abu Aisheh, who worked for the Islamic Jihad-linked channel Palestine Al-Youm. After he was killed in July 2025, media organizations described him as a journalist killed while covering the war. This month, however, Islamic Jihad’s military wing said Abu Aisheh had been a unit commander and a member of its Central Information Unit.
Another example is Muhammad Nasser Abu Huwaidi, who was presented as a journalist and whose death prompted a formal UNESCO condemnation in 2024. In March, Islamic Jihad said Abu Huwaidi had served in its Military Information Unit. Following the new information, the Committee to Protect Journalists removed several names from its database of journalists killed in the war, saying further review showed some had taken part in fighting or held operational posts in terrorist organizations.
The report says other names once listed as journalists were later identified by Hamas or Islamic Jihad as members of the groups, either in propaganda units or as full combatants in battalions. It also notes the difficulty of identifying lower-level operatives, since in many cases no public information about their military role was available until the groups issued official statements. Some deaths were also attributed to people previously described as athletes or civilians, including Ahmed Abu al-Atta, who was later identified by Islamic Jihad as deputy commander of the Gaza Brigade’s rocket unit. Israel has said throughout the war that some of those described as journalists were also terror operatives, and the new disclosures back at least some of those claims.
