Finally naming their war dead, Gazan terror groups admit some slain journalists were fighters

"On July 10, 2025, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a home in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, killing a man identified as Ahmed Abu Eisha. According to reports, Abu Eisha had been a journalist for Palestine Today, a television channel affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, citing a colleague, Abu Eisha was killed shortly after returning home from ‘covering events’ at a hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Abu Eisha was ‘polite, calm, and kind; someone who avoided conflict,’ wrote CPJ, quoting the colleague. It noted his hard work pursuing stories and his recent completion of a PhD in Arabic, including him in its tally of hundreds of journalists it alleges Israel has killed since October 7, 2023.

But there was more to the Gazan as well.

On June 1, the PIJ’s military wing announced that Abu Eisha had been a unit commander and operative in the organization’s ‘Central Information Unit’ within its Central Brigade when he was killed. While no official description of the unit’s role was provided, it appears to have been involved in intelligence gathering and analysis.

The disclosure was one of dozens made by PIJ and Hamas in recent weeks announcing the deaths of its fighters during the war, after years in which the groups declined to identify nearly any of its combatants killed in the fighting.

A review by The Times of Israel of many of the hundreds of names of operatives published on official Hamas and PIJ military-wing Telegram channels and affiliated accounts found several people who had previously been identified as journalists, or other civilians.

The releases, which continue to be published at a rate of seven or eight a day, seemingly cast new light on persistent accusations that the Israel Defense Forces targeted journalists during the war, lending credence... to Israeli assertions that they were actually legitimate military targets contributing to the fighting..."