A new report has claimed that the majority of those identified as journalists killed by the IDF in Gaza had ties to local terror groups.
Around 60 per cent of the reported casualties were either active members or affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organisations, per a study from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre (ITIC).
The centre was able to identify 157 cases of journalists linked to terror who were killed in Israeli operations in Gaza.
Humanitarian organisations and industry groups such as Amnesty and Reporters Without Borders have condemned the IDF and accused it of targeting journalists reporting on alleged war crimes and genocide.
But the report by ITIC, whose staff includes several current and former IDF officers, in many cases, the journalists targeted were active terrorists.
It found that 104 of those killed were linked to Hamas, while a further 45 were involved with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A handful of others were spread across the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah’s military wing and the Popular Resistance Committees, all of which Israel classifies as terrorist organisations.
“Hamas sees journalists as an important part of its propaganda system, the struggle for consciousness and incitement,” the centre wrote.
The report was based on lists of media personnel released by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza, as well as internal Hamas documents seized by the IDF during the war.
The centre added: “The determination of the journalists' organisational identity was made according to two criteria: information about clear membership in the organisation or its military wing, or the journalist being employed by a media outlet of one of the organisations, which means that he identifies with that organisation and acts on its behalf.
"The terrorist organisations in Gaza, led by Hamas, operate a large number of media channels in the Strip on their behalf and which are identified with them.
"Senior Hamas officials reiterate that the media war is no less important than the military one.”
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