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 partial 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, in at least some cases, to Israeli assertions that they were actually legitimate military targets contributing to the fighting.

Israel says it takes steps to minimize civilian casualties and does not target journalists or others uninvolved in terror operations, but critics have questioned those claims, noting the high numbers of non-combatants reportedly killed.

Despite the publication of his position within Islamic Jihad, Abu Eisha remained featured in an online database by CPJ, a media advocacy group that records reported journalist deaths around the world.

However, the group in recent weeks has quietly removed eight other Palestinians from a list of media workers it alleges were killed by Israel after determining they had “participated in combat.”

The list, which once included 276 names killed in the conflict, including Israelis and journalists from Yemen, Lebanon and Iran, now sits at 259, with others removed for various reasons unrelated to combat roles.

“We review all individuals once new information comes to light and will continue to remove any from our database deemed to have been engaging in combat,” CPJ said following a request for comment on the matter.

A number of the names removed include figures identified by Hamas or PIJ as having taken part in the fight.

One such figure is Mohammed Nasser Abu Huwaidi, who was killed in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of northern Gaza on December 23, 2023. At the time, Huwaidi was described as a journalist for Al-Istiqlal, an Arabic- and English-language news outlet that covers the Arab world, including Gaza.

The killing sparked a UNESCO condemnation in January 2024, with then-director general Audrey Azoulay calling for respect for Security Council resolutions regarding the protection of journalists and media workers in conflict zones.

However, on March 19, Islamic Jihad included Abu Huwaidi on a list of operatives killed during the war. In a statement issued by the........

© The Times of Israel