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Who Are the Killed Gazan Journalists Affiliated With Palestinian Terror Groups?
Israeli military vehicles move near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in southern Israel, Dec. 31, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
One of the more widely discussed facets of the Israel-Hamas war has been the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7.
The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and the Financial Times are just some of the mainstream media organizations that have featured in-depth reports on the Palestinian journalist casualties in Gaza.
However, what these reports fail to disclose is that a substantial number of these Gaza-based journalists were either members of proscribed Palestinian terror organizations, or affiliated with these groups. These groups include Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Based on information provided by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), of the 83 Palestinian journalists identified by the CPJ as being killed in Gaza as of February 22, 2024, 45 (roughly 55%) were either members or affiliates of a Palestinian terrorist group.
The following is a list of the killed Palestinian journalists who were associated with Gaza-based terror groups:
Alaa Al-Hams (passed away on February 12, 2024 from a prior wound) — She had previously worked for the Houthi-affiliated Al Masira TV Network and the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
Mohammed Atallah (reported killed on January 29, 2024) — He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Resalah news website.
Iyad El-Ruwagh (reported killed on January 25, 2024) — He worked as a host for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Voice Radio.
Mohamed Jamal Sobhi Al-Thalathini (reported killed on January 11, 2024) — He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
Ahmed Bdeir (reported killed on January 10, 2024) — He worked for Bawabat al-Hadaf, which is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Hamza Al Dahdouh (reported killed on January 7, 2024) — He worked for Al Jazeera. He reportedly served in Islamic Jihad’s electronic engineering unit, and previously served as a deputy commander in the Zeitoun Brigade’s rocket force.
Mustafa Thuraya (reported killed on January 7, 2024) — He worked as a freelancer for AFP. He reportedly served as a deputy squad commander in Hamas’ Gaza City Brigade.
Akram Elshafie (passed away on January 5, 2024 from injuries sustained in October 2023) — He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Safa news agency.
Jabr Abu Hadrous (reported killed on December 29, 2023) — He worked as a reporter for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
Ahmed Khaireddine (reported killed on December 28, 2023) — He worked as a cameraman for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster Al-Qouds Al-Youm and for the Hamas-affiliated Quds Feed.
Mohamad Al-Iff (reported killed on December 24, 2023) — He worked as a journalist and photographer for the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
Mohamed Azzaytouniyah (reported killed on December 24, 2023) — He worked as a sound engineer for the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
Ahmad Jamal Al-Madhoun (reported killed on December 24, 2023) — He served as the deputy director of the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
Mohamed Naser Abu Huwaidi (reported killed on December 22, 2023) — He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated newspaper, Al-Istiklal.
Mohamed Khalifeh (reported killed on December 22, 2023) –– He served as a director at the Hamas-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Aqsa TV*.
Adel Zorob (reported killed on December 19, 2023) — He was a freelance journalist who worked with a variety of media outlets in Gaza, including the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Voice Radio.
Abdallah Alwan (reported killed on December 18, 2023) — He worked for Al Jazeera and also as a radio host at the Islamic University in Gaza, a Hamas-affiliated organization.
Haneen Kashtan (reported killed on December 17, 2023) — He worked for the Fatah-affiliated Al-Kofiya TV and for Tzut Alutan, a radio station affiliated with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Hassan Farajalla (reported killed on December 3, 2023) — According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he held a senior position at Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV. According to the Meir Amit Center, he held a senior position at the Islamic Jihad-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
Shaima El-Gazzar (reported killed on either December 3 or 4, 2023) — She worked for the Al-Majedat network and was reportedly also a Hamas activist.
Abdullah Darwish (reported killed on December 1, 2023) — He worked as a cameraman for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Mostafa Bakeer (reported killed on November 24, 2023) — He worked as a cameraman and journalist for the Hamas-affiliated broadcaster, Al-Aqsa TV*.
Assem Al-Barsh (reported killed on November 22, 2023) — He worked for the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Al-Rai.
Mohamed Nabil Al-Zaq (reported killed on November 22, 2023) — He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated media network, Al-Qouds Al-Youm.
Abdelhalim Awad (reported killed on November 18, 2023) — He served as a media worker and driver for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Mostafa El Sawaf (reported killed November 18, 2023) — He worked for the local news website MSDR News. He joined Hamas at its founding and previously served as a member of Hamas’ Gaza leadership.
Amro Salah Abu Hayah (reported killed on November 18, 2023) — He worked in the broadcast department of Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Yahya Abu Manih (reported killed on November 7, 2023) — He worked as a journalist for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Radio.
Mohamad Al-Bayyari (reported killed on November 2, 2023) — He worked as a journalist for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Iyad Matar (reported killed on November 1, 2023) — He worked as a journalist for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Majed Kashko (reported killed on October 31, 2023) — He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated media channel, Palestine Today.
Yasser Abu Namous (reported killed on October 27, 2023) — He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Sahel media organization.
Duaa Sharaf (reported killed on October 26, 2023) — She worked as a host for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Radio.
Jamal Al-Faqaawi (reported killed on October 25, 2023) — He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Mithaq Media Foundation.
Saed Al-Halabi (reported killed on October 25, 2023) — He worked as a journalist for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Ahmed Abu Mhadi (reported killed on October 25, 2023) — He worked for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Mohammed Imad Labad (reported killed on October 23, 2023) — He worked for the Hamas-affiliated news website, Al-Resalah.
Khalil Abu Aathra (reported killed on October 19, 2023) — He worked as a videographer for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Sameeh Al-Nady (reported killed on October 18, 2023) — He worked as a journalist and director for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Mohammad Balousha (reported killed on October 17, 2023) — He worked as a journalist and administrator for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated media channel, Palestine Today.
Issam Bhar (reported killed on October 17, 2023) — He worked for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV*.
Husam Mubarak (reported killed on October 13, 2023) — He worked as a journalist for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa radio station.
Ahmed Shehab (reported killed on October 12, 2023) — He worked for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated radio station, Voice of the Prisoners. He had previously been imprisoned by Israel and was released during the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal.
Mohammad Al-Salhi (reported killed on October 7, 2023) — He worked as a photojournalist for the Fourth Authority news agency and was also responsible for public relations for the Hamas-affiliated Dar al-Quran al-Karrem wal-Sunnah organization.
Mohammad Jarghoun (reported killed on October 7, 2023) — He worked as a journalist for Smart Media and reportedly served in Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades.
*Since 2010, Al-Aqsa TV has been designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of the Treasury.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Palestinian Authority Condemns Hamas for US Talks

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The Palestinian Authority (PA) denounced Hamas for what it called “contacts with foreign parties,” seemingly referring to the terrorist group’s recent direct negotiations with the United States on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned Hamas for opening communication with foreign parties, accusing the terrorist group of “dividing the Palestinian national position” and breaking laws against such contacts, the official PA news agency Wafa reported.
“Opening channels of communication with foreign parties and conducting negotiations with them without a national mandate is a violation of the Palestinian law that criminalizes communicating with foreign parties,” Rudeineh said in a statement.
He also said the talks undermine ongoing discussions for post-war rebuilding efforts – particularly the Egyptian-Palestinian plan for Gaza’s reconstruction outlined in the emergency summit in Cairo earlier this month – and weaken efforts to prevent “the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland.”
The presidential spokesman urged Hamas to transfer control of the Gaza Strip to the PA, aiming to reunite Gaza and the West Bank “under the rule of a single national authority, a single law, a single weapon, and a single legitimate political representation.”
The PA, a rival of Hamas, has sought to publicly distance itself from the terrorist group while also engaging in Palestinian reconciliation talks. However, PA officials have been regularly rationalizing Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel and in some cases even denying it took place or falsely claiming Israeli forces carried out the onslaught that started the Gaza war.
In a separate statement this week, Abbas’s ruling Fatah Party accused Hamas of “only representing itself and Iran, as one of its agents in the region.”
Iran has backed Hamas for years, providing the terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training.
“Those who accepted the description of ‘nice’ from the American envoy [Adam Boehler] after offering concessions do not represent our people,” Fatah said.
“Statements made by Hamas leaders who fled Gaza and are living in luxurious hotels in Qatar reveal the extent of Hamas’s involvement in these conspiracies and schemes that target our people and their just national cause.”
Last year, Fatah, the main Palestinian faction in the West Bank and the movement that controls the PA, lambasted Iran for meddling in internal Palestinian affairs, accusing the Iranian regime of spreading chaos in its territory.
Over the past few weeks, meetings between Hamas leaders and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler have been reported, focusing on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza.
“The reason that I met Hamas is because I want to work to help to get Americans and Israelis out,” Boehler said during an interview with Israel’s Kan News.
He also explained that he wanted to understand the terrorist organization’s demands for ending the Gaza war. “Some of the things that they talked about were relatively reasonable and workable things,” he said.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the talks with Hamas were a rare and isolated event, and they have not yet produced any results.
“That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so,” Rubio said.
This week, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Qatar, which hosts several Hamas leaders, to join an Israeli delegation for talks with Hamas about extending the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
While Israel hopes the US will push forward a plan for a two-month truce extension, starting with the release of about half of the living hostages, Hamas has so far rejected the plan, insisting on immediate talks about the second phase of the ceasefire, which would end the war and lead to a full Israeli troop withdrawal.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Earlier this year, both sides reached a ceasefire and hostage-release deal brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar.
The first phase, which ended on March 1, saw Hamas release 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight others – in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel – as well as five living Thai hostages.
Most Arab states have rejected Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza to rebuild the war-torn enclave, while relocating Palestinians elsewhere during reconstruction efforts.
Trump has called on Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states to take in Palestinians from Gaza after about 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Middle Eastern leaders, expected to bear much of the financial burden of rebuilding Gaza, have struggled to propose their own plan but insist on a role for the Palestinian Authority, while also advocating for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Iran’s Growing Military Ties With China, Russia Present a ‘Danger’ to US and Israeli Security, Experts Warn

A Chinese warship sails during the joint navy exercise of Iran, China, and Russia in the Gulf of Oman, Iran, March 12, 2025. Photo: Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Expanding military cooperation between Iran, China, and Russia presents a rising threat to the US and its allies in the Middle East, especially Israel, according to experts who spoke with The Algemeiner.
The warning came as Iran, China, and Russia on Wednesday concluded three days of joint naval drills in Iranian territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman, located in the northern Indian Ocean, bolstering defense cooperation as tensions in the Middle East mount over Tehran’s expanding nuclear program and terrorist proxies across the region.
The joint drills — called the Maritime Security Belt 2025 — also took place near the strategic Strait of Hormuz off southeast Iran, a critical passageway for global energy supplies through which a fifth of all crude oil traded worldwide passes. Iran has previously threatened to close the waterway if conflict breaks out with the US and Israel.
According to Jack Burnham, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based think tank, such joint drills will allow the three authoritarian regimes to become more interoperable with each other while gaining valuable experience operating in a strategically sensitive environment.
This week’s joint naval exercise was the fifth conducted by Iranian, Chinese, and Russian military forces since 2019.
“The most recent iteration of these naval drills between Iran, China, and Russia highlights these capitals’ growing ties during a period of international turmoil,” Burnham told The Algemeiner. “In recent months, Russia and Iran have cemented closer defense ties, China has allegedly shipped missile components to Iran and its proxies, and China and Russia celebrated the anniversary of the Ukraine war by reaffirming their ‘no limits’ partnership.”
He also explained that such cooperation will allow the Iranian, Chinese, and Russian militaries to feel more comfortable operating together if a regional crisis emerges, adding that joint exercises may eventually lead to other forms of defense cooperation, “such as transferring cutting-edge military technologies between authoritarian states bent on challenging the West.”
“For Israel and for the region, the possibility of Iran and its proxies strengthening their already-comprehensive arsenals via access to Chinese and Russian weapons components presents a clear danger to its security,” Burnham said.
According to Iranian state media, this week’s joint drills featured warships and combat and support vessels from the Chinese and Russian navies, as well as warships from Iran’s naval forces, including both the regular military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an internationally designated terrorist organization.
The Iranian Navy’s deputy head of operations, Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajeddini, said these exercises aimed to “strengthen security in the region and expand multilateral cooperation between participating countries,” with the main goal of enhancing maritime security in the northern Indian Ocean, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.
The naval drills were monitored by observers from Azerbaijan, South Africa, Oman, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Sri Lanka who traveled to Tehran.
In a statement, the Chinese Defense Ministry said the drills aimed at “enhancing military trust and strengthening practical cooperation,” including simulated strikes on maritime targets, visit-board-search-seizure operations, and search and rescue missions.
Both China and Russia have had deep interests in Iran as a partner in the Middle East. Beijing has continued to purchase Iranian crude oil despite Western sanctions and remains one of the top markets for Iranian imports. Meanwhile, Russia has relied on Iran for the supply of bomb-carrying drones used in its war on Ukraine.
According to John Lee, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank, cooperation between China, Russia, and Iran has evolved from primarily political, diplomatic, and economic coordination to increasingly include military elements over the past half decade.
“Such exercises indicate that these three countries are preparing to work together across multiple potential conflict zones from the Middle East and Persian Gulf to Eastern Europe to Northeast Asia,” Lee told The Algemeiner.
“That they are practicing tactical strikes against sea-based targets as well as search and seizure operations is a simulation of what would be needed during a hot war with the US and its allies,” he continued.
Lee also explained that these three countries are united by their goal of undermining American power, with Iran trying to weaken Israel and disrupt stability in the Persian Gulf, Russia aiming to challenge NATO and expand into Eastern Europe, and China focused on integrating Taiwan and controlling the South China Sea.
With Iran seeking to coerce and gain leverage by disrupting shipping in the Persian Gulf, Lee argued that US hard power and influence are the key factors preventing these objectives from being realized.
“In a war scenario, the Persian Gulf and other choke points such as the Gulf of Aden become of immense strategic and tactical importance,” Lee said. “Deeper cooperation with Russia and China could allow Iran to exert its presence and influence in these bodies of water.”
Iran’s growing ties with China and Russia come at a time when Tehran is facing increasing sanctions by the United States, particularly on its oil industry, as part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at cutting the country’s crude exports to zero and preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Even though Tehran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon, the UN nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – has warned that Iran is “dramatically” accelerating uranium enrichment to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program and its obligation to provide the IAEA with “the information necessary to clarify outstanding issues related to undeclared nuclear material detected at multiple locations in Iran,” diplomat told Reuters.
Tehran has repeatedly claimed that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes rather than weapon development.
However, Western states have said there is no “credible civilian justification” for the country’s recent nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
Last week, Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Tehran will not be bullied into negotiations after US President Donald Trump revealed he had sent a letter to the country’s top authority to negotiate a nuclear deal.
Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the possibility of nuclear talks with Washington.
“There will be no possibility of direct talks between us and the United States on the nuclear issue as long as the maximum pressure is applied in this way,” Araghchi said during a joint press conference with his visiting Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
China will hold a meeting on Friday in Beijing with Russia and Iran on the Iranian “nuclear issue”, its foreign ministry said at a press conference, further highlighting the growing cooperation between the three powers.
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‘Little Gaza’: US Sen. Tom Cotton Introduces Legislation to Combat Campus Radicalism

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has proposed two new bills which would impose legal sanctions on purveyors of seditious, pro-terror ideologies on university campuses and the higher education institutions that harbor them, advancing the Republican Party’s offensive against the pro-Hamas student movement.
Shared first with Breitbart News, a news outlet that was instrumental in launching US President Donald Trump’s populist movement, the “No Student Loans for Campus Criminals Act” and “Woke Endowment Security Tax (WEST)” come amid a series of riotous demonstrations promoting antisemitic ideas, as well as the goals of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, and a widespread perception that elite universities have not done enough to combat them.
“First, any pro-Hamas protester convicted of a crime should be ineligible for federal student loans, and federal student loan relief. The American people should not be on the hook for the tuition of Little Gaza inhabitants,” Cotton said in a social media post on Tuesday announcing his introduction of the bills. “Second, our elite universities need to know the cost of pushing anti-American and pro-terrorist agendas.”
He continued, “The WEST Act would tax the largest university endowments to help pay down national debt and secure our southern border.”
As Cotton mentioned in his social media posts, the No Student Loans for Campus Criminals Act would prevent any campus protestor convicted of a crime from receiving federal student loans or student loan relief. Meanwhile, the WEST Act would institute a 6 percent excise tax on the endowments of 11 American universities, using the proceeds to pay down the national debt and secure the southern border shared with Mexico. According to Cotton’s office, the bill would generate $16.6 billion in revenue.
Republican lawmakers have called for holding higher education accountable since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel set off an explosion of antisemitic sentiment on college campuses, causing a succession of conflagrations which still are still burning hot at schools such as Columbia University.
In December, the Republican-led US House Committee on Education and the Workforce issued a report, which said that nothing short of a revolution of the current habits and ideas which constitute the current higher education regime can prevent similar episodes of unrest from occurring in the future. Colleges, it continued, need equal enforcement of civil rights laws to protect Jewish students from discrimination and “viewpoint diversity” to prevent the establishment of ideological echo chambers. It also said that “academic rigor,” undermined by years of dissolving educational standards for political purposes, would guard against the reduction of complex social issues into the sloganeering of “scholar activism,” in which faculty turn the classroom into a soapbox and reward students who mimic them.
The new Trump administration has taken steps to convert this vision into policy since assuming power in January.
On Friday, it canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia University as punishment for the school’s alleged harboring of antisemitic faculty, students, and staff and shielding them from disciplinary sanctions. Prior to that, US President Donald Trump issued a highly anticipated executive order which calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”
A major provision of the order authorizes the deportation of extremist “alien” student activists, whose support for terrorist organizations, intellectual and material, such as Hamas contributed to fostering antisemitism, violence, and property destruction on college campuses. That policy is currently being challenged in the courts, as a federal judge in Manhattan has halted its application to the case of a male alumnus of Columbia University who was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being identified as an architect of the Hamilton Hall building takeover, which took place during the closing weeks of the 2023-2024 academic year.
On Monday, US Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced that dozens of colleges and universities will be investigated for civil rights violations stemming from their alleged failure to address campus antisemitism. McMahon named 55 institutions, public and private, in total that were not included in the administration’s February announcement of five investigations of antisemitism at Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
The new schools include: Harvard University, Swarthmore College, Drexel University, and Princeton University — all of which have struggled with antisemitic anti-Israel activity and pro-Hamas agitation, as The Algemeiner has previously reported.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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