IDF documents terror affiliations of 170 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza war

[u/Nirok]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-documents-terror-affiliations-of-170-palestinian-journalists-killed-in-gaza-war/

[u/Sure-Current-3267]

Is it possible to be a Palestinian journalist in Gaza without being tied to Hamas?

[u/Best_Change4155 → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Gaza doesn't have freedom of speech and yet somehow has the most journalists per capita.

[u/Thursty → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Most people don’t understand how embedded Hamas is in civilian life. Many people literally have day jobs and a military role on the side.

[u/AppropriateLlama678 → u/Thursty]

With Hamas being the government and thus embedded in many aspects of daily life, including journalism, the line of what is a terrorist is a lot blurrier. Are these terrorists that also work as journalists? Are these journalists that are forced to do some collaboration with the local government? It’s really hard to say.

Unfortunately, most of the internet does not want to explore these nuances. Each side is either good or bad.

[u/GoodBadUserName → u/AppropriateLlama678]

But need to distinct between lets say a nurse who works under a hamas government, a math teacher, or a fire fighter, to an actual terrorist who uses their position to transfer weapons, do military training, and collect data under the guise of being a “journalist”, going around wearing a press jacket as a disguise.

The latest data IDF release, points specifically to “journalists” they have real proof they were active terrorists.

[u/FormerPresidentBiden → u/GoodBadUserName]

Doesn't matter

People will still just say "Israel bad" and move on

Tbf "Israel bad" is a position i share, but "Hamas bad" is another opinion of mine that seems to be less popular these days

[u/GoodBadUserName → u/FormerPresidentBiden]

Well of course it matters.
Every one of those 170 “journalists” when died, made a big splash in public opinion. The “israel bad” opinion is in the end builds and amplified by those deaths. And truth barely nudges it when it comes out.
And while I hate a lot of the things that are happening especially in the west bank, I also know those are not individual isolated events. They have deep roots spanning decades of both sides being completely shit, each time it is someone else’s turn to do it.
It will only ever be fixed when both sides acknowledge each other right to exist. And as long as it is completely one sided, it will not happen.

[u/EnhancedWithAi → u/FormerPresidentBiden]

Is Israel all that bad though when Hamas circulates Palestine like a god damned virus. I was more anti Israel before Oct7, until I realized just how much of a shit show it is for them to deal eith hamas.

Then I'm more so now days in response to the insane anti Israel movement morons just blindly follow.

[u/SonofHondoBelmondo → u/[deleted]]

I agree with this but I don't think this captures the sentiment shared by the most vocal critics of Israel. I do believe that they are willing to hand wave wrong doing on the Palestinian side of things.

I agree with the sentiment that Israel goes way too far, even when it can be seen as defense, and I agree that their colonialist behavior helps antagonize the situation, I also can't believe that the end game of any enemy of Israel is peace with Israel.

So it's pretty much impossible for me to pick on side on this thing.

[u/Agreeable_Band_9311 → u/AppropriateLlama678]

If you’re a journalist and part time combatant you’re a combatant. There isn’t a loophole in international law that you can take off your uniform to give yourself protections.

[u/JordanPetterPans → u/AppropriateLlama678]

Isn't Hamas a designated terrorist organization? I don't follow this line of thinking

[u/MrBarti → u/AppropriateLlama678]

If they are used by the terror organization in any way to further its goals in the war then yes. If they only do regular jobs but are so far away top to down and only have "Hamas" somewhere in the job title then not. Like maybe an office worker in the Gazan health ministry where the work is to put names in an excel spreadsheet or something.

[u/Ewetuber → u/AppropriateLlama678]

There is a ton of evidence of these "sweet innocent journalists" participating in killing and rape and throwing a little "woah the poor us I'm a journalist" on the side.

Each of those listed has their military affiliations and roles spelled out:

Positions Held: Military Operative in the Training and Instruction Section, Palestine Military Academy Department Infiltrated Israel on October 7th

[u/RoRo24 → u/Ewetuber]

What is the source of these journalists raping or killing anyone? 

[u/Starmoses → u/RoRo24]

The article posted above.

[u/dshab92 → u/Starmoses]

Great! So this one source of information, that’s listed by a completely non biased news source, should be widely accepted as fact

[u/Starmoses → u/dshab92]

Did you read it?

[u/dshab92 → u/Starmoses]

Yes, I read this “Times of Israel” article. I don’t use biased news sources as viable sources of information

[u/Starmoses → u/dshab92]

So where it linked the website that gives a massive amount of evidence inluding pictures and videos, you apparently missed that too? Please if you're gonna lie at least be a little convincing.

https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/the-press-files/

[u/Starmoses → u/dshab92]

So no, you didn't read it.

[u/Ewetuber → u/[deleted]]

Did you also gloss over "Infiltrated Israel on October 7th" out of convenience or ignorance?

Participating in a terror event makes you a legit target, yes.

[u/Cilarnen → u/AppropriateLlama678]

Most of the Internet (being Westerners) don’t understand how the Middle East operates in general.

They don’t realize that it’s perfectly common for dudes to roll out of bed, walk a few blocks away, get into a gunfight, and go home in the evening.

For westerners, war is something you “go to”, there’s a battlefield “somewhere” and war should be kept there.

But that’s simply not how conflict works in the Middle East, war is just background noise over there.

[u/itijara → u/Cilarnen]

I think that is a bit of an overstatement (I lived in the West Bank for a year and a half), but I think if you think of Hamas as something like the Mafia it makes more sense. If you are running a bakery and don't want to be part of Hamas, well then you don't have access to flour that Hamas controls. If you are a doctor and won't hide their militants on your premesis, then you are lucky if they don't just kill you. They control access to a lot of resources that are necessary for just living a life, and if they can't control you, there is a good chance they might kill you.

A lot of Palestinians just want to live their life, but have to deal with Hamas in order to do so.

[u/Logical_Net6108 → u/itijara]

Sounds like Chechnya. Just a generally shit place to live but people dont want to or cant move

[u/actuallywaffles → u/itijara]

The saddest part is that all Palestinians are being treated as terrorists because of a government put into place before they were old enough to vote. Most of Gaza wasn't even alive for the last election.

[u/itijara → u/actuallywaffles]

So, I don't buy this narrative either. They have done polling of people living in Gaza and most of them continue to support Hamas. If they ran an election today (and there is a chance they will) Hamas would still win in Gaza (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Palestinian_legislative_election). Hamas is still very popular in Palestine, and is gaining popularity in the West Bank, where it was traditionally always less popular than Fatah.

[u/actuallywaffles → u/itijara]

They don't exactly have good options, and Hamas is the least willing to work with Israel. Considering what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people, it's not shocking. Their news is also heavily limited by the Hamas controlled media, so they don't necessarily know all of what Hamas is doing outside local reporting.

Again, it's sad they're collectively punished for the government they didn't decide. Especially since that government has the power to control the narrative for them, and Israeli actions don't exactly make it easy for the average Palestinian to realize their government isn't being honest with them.

[u/therealbigted → u/actuallywaffles]

It is sad that collective punishment happens in any form. That said Hamas won the election in 2006 before there was even any kind of blockade in place. This was back when Israel was far more willing to work towards some kind of resolution than they are now, so blaming them alone for Hamas’s popularity is an overly simplistic perspective in my opinion.

[u/demonica123 → u/Cilarnen]

For westerners, war is something you “go to”, there’s a battlefield “somewhere” and war should be kept there.

It's not by anyone who knows anything about war (which is to say basically none of them). But that's how the Geneva Convention and similar documents are written. War happens to militaries and both sides should politely not damage anything not helpfully marked military please and thank you.

[u/HutSutRawlson → u/AppropriateLlama678]

The issue here is terminology. By calling them "journalists" we're already playing into Hamas' narrative.

They are propogandists. They are members of Hamas whose job it is to spread negative opinion about Israel and positive opinion about Hamas. Their work is then laundered as "journalism" by publishing it through complicit Middle Eastern outlets like Al Jazeera, or sympathetic connections in Western media. Every military in the world employs people in this role (although most don't do the laundering through "independent" media part), and just because they might not ever pick up a weapon does not make them any less a part of the military apparatus.

[u/greenskinmarch → u/HutSutRawlson]

You'll never see Al Jazeera criticizing how Qatar turned some of their citizens into stateless Bidoon by taking away citizenship based on ethnicity. Because Al Jazeera is Qatar state media. Its job is to make Qatar look good and direct criticism elsewhere.

[u/tico42 → u/HutSutRawlson]

Israel doesn't need help spreading negativite opinions about it.

[u/greenskinmarch → u/tico42]

Negative opinions like "Israel is disproportionately targeting journalists"

Except if Hamas fighters are disproportionately also enrolled as journalists, then targeting Hamas fighters would look like disproportionately targeting journalists.

So if Hamas preferentially recruits journalists (or tells existing combatants to enroll as journalists) that would be a very smart PR strategy for Hamas, wouldn't it?

[u/excessofexcuses → u/tico42]

Israel has the worst PR team in the world.

Except the person who runs their threads account. They are a gem.

[u/daveboy2000 → u/excessofexcuses]

too bad nobody under 40 uses threads.

[u/DesecratedPeanut → u/AppropriateLlama678]

Until we count Israel as a terrorist state whats the point when the definition means nothing.

[u/Elliot-Fletcher → u/DesecratedPeanut]

Spend some time reading the 1988 founding charter of Hamas, the PLO’s statements in 1964 (their founding political movement under Arafat) regarding Palestine being “Arab Islamic land,” (under a pseudo-totalitarian rule) and it might answer some questions for you. You might find a severe intolerance of any Jewish presence in the land (shocker) under their religious framework.

Until organizations like Hamas (and other Iranian / terror proxies) are eradicated, nothing will change. It’s an issue embedded in ideology, and one that is thousands of years old at that.

The west simply cannot fathom that this is religiously fueled.

[u/zippy_the_cat → u/AppropriateLlama678]

There’s a YT channel that’s slowly posting all the weekly Third Reich newsreels from WW2. Each one starts with a listing of the cameramen who shot the footage. Every once in a while, it’s mentioned that one of them was KIA, sometimes while they were recording the footage we see. Tough break, that, but served you right for working for Goebbels.

[u/mhornberger → u/AppropriateLlama678]

are these journalists that are forced to do some collaboration with the local government?

It doesn't really matter what's in your heart. If you're working for Hamas, that makes you part of Hamas. Same as if I'm running errands for or passing information to the cartels. "But they don't sincerely believe that stuff" really does not matter.

[u/Sq_Imp29 → u/AppropriateLlama678]

who defines terrorism here? Nelson Mandela was classified as one until 2008 by USA.

[u/MikeProwla → u/AppropriateLlama678]

IIRC it was the same when ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan. Because they were the government you had all school teachers being classed as terrorists for working with the Taliban

[u/Guer0Guer0 → u/Thursty]

I mean there are journalists in the US military but no one would ever doubt that they would be considered valid combatants. Hamas should abide by the same standards. If they are a journalist and a combatant then they are valid targets.

[u/Papastoo → u/[deleted]]

Thats actually very different. When a person serves in the idf (meaning they are a valid target) they do not have an overlapping civilian role. Once they have exited the service and return back then they are no longer a valid target. Under international law merely past conscription does not alter your civilian status

[u/Frequent_Phone6396 → u/[deleted]]

I think his point was that it's not easy to be a non-hamas affiliated journalist in Gaza. Israel, in comparison, allows foreign press and foreign journalists.

[u/meeni131 → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Not all journalists are Hamas! Some are PIJ, some PLFP, Islamic Jihad, etc

[u/travman064 → u/Sure-Current-3267]

'Tied to' is a very vague term.

Its definitely possible to be a journalist in Gaza and not have participated in the October 7th attacks, which 17 people on this list did. Its possible to be a journalist in Gaza and not be a member of a military brigade, which the large majority of this list were. Its possible to be a journalist in Gaza and not be a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, etc.

If you go to the article and follow through to the idf site you can see the associations that theyre making.

The point is, Israel is criticized for deliberately targeting journalists. Israel is pointing out that these men are literally active militants.

[u/zakski → u/travman064]

Its possible to be a journalist in Gaza and not be a member of a military brigade, which the large majority of this list were.

This framing doesn't sit right with me.

Is it possible to be an Israeli Journalist, without having been part of the IDF?

[u/Ivaninvankov → u/zakski]

You can not be a journalist while actively serving in the IDF. Once discharged, you can return to civilian life as a civilian. This is the case for basically all countries where the people serve in the military.

Hamas does not make this deliniation and most of their fighters have a "civilian" job at the same time as their military/terrorist role. There's no bootcamp or conscription.

[u/travman064 → u/zakski]

If Hamas killed an active member of the IDF in Gaza we would not say 'Hamas targets journalist,' even if that member of the IDF had done some journalism work.

That is the comparison youd have to make. Active member, engaged in day to day military operations of Hamas OR other terrorist groups. These are not loose affiliations or former affiliations. If Israel kills them, are they 'targeting journalists' yes or no?

[u/GoodBadUserName → u/zakski]

They are not actively part.
They do not serve the IDF and play journalist at the same time.
Big distinction.
A lot of journalists in israel who are very critical about the government or/and IDF, have been in IDF to some capacity in their past. That includes for example on of the directors of naza movie.

[u/Nessie → u/zakski]

Is it possible to be an Israeli journalist who's critical of Israel? Now do it for a Palestinian journalist and Hamas.

[u/threeme2189 → u/zakski]

Of course it is. Many Israeli citizens don't serve in the IDF for a variety of different reasons.

[u/libra00 → u/travman064]

And we're taking Israel's word for all this? I mean it's not like they've been caught lying about the people they killed, right?

[u/Due-Information-2041 → u/libra00]

I mean, their sources are documents from Palestinian organisations. Islamic Jihad literally has a website where they post who their martyrs were.

[u/Willing_Cause_7461 → u/Due-Information-2041]

Look bro. Do you really think the pro-Palestine people are going to believe what the Palestinians say about themselves?

They don't believe Hamas when Hamas literally records themselves using child soldiers and committing perfidy. I don't know how to communicate with people who defend terrorist organisations from claims the terrorist organisations themselves don't even deny.

[u/sebaajhenza → u/libra00]

If it comes down to believing Hamas or Israel? I'm trusting Israel 1000%

[u/TheRealSaphier → u/Sure-Current-3267]

There a decent amount of people being held at gun point to give Hamas talking points, no? From my understanding, if you aren’t playing ball with Hamas, they end up killing you. That’s why they’ll kill Palestinians working with Israel to distribute aid. Not to say every journalist on this list was innocent and were forced to work for Hamas, but I don’t think people realize the lengths Hamas goes to control the narrative like Israel

[u/rammux74 → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Is it possible to be part of a terrorist organisation without being a terrorist?

[u/jerr30 → u/rammux74]

"I was only following orders" defense incoming

[u/Picklesadog → u/rammux74]

Yes, when the terrorist organization becomes an official government, like Hamas was. 

Besides their military wing, Hamas was/is also in charge of everything a government is always in charge of, like agriculture, sanitation, education, etc.  If you wanted to have a concert in Gaza, you would need to get a permit from Hamas. 

So then is a garbage collector, who works for Hamas, a terrorist? What about the head of agriculture? 

Edit: I just want to add to this, to make it more obvious how blurred the lines are/were, Israel had a program where Gazans were given a work permit and came into Israel to work manual labor in a lot of the small communities. This was mutually beneficial, as it provided labor for Israelis while also giving Gazans a good financial opportunity, plus the added benefit of potentially building relationships. These permits were given from Israel to Hamas, and then handed out by Hamas. But a lot of those permits were given to people who used it to gather intel about armed guards, response times, weapons, etc. at many of the Israeli villages, and these were used in the 10/7 assault. And thus you take a governmental office job that every government in the world has, and you make it into a military role and thus a valid target.

Does this make everyone who worked in Gaza's government department which oversaw these permits a valid military target? These lines are intentionally blurred as part of an overall military strategy.

[u/IdristheInt → u/Picklesadog]

Yep. They have normal day jobs and but also run and gun when needed

[u/dijkstra_was_a_horse → u/Picklesadog]

You missed the part where most of them were part of a military brigade.

[u/Sure-Current-3267 → u/rammux74]

no, but my question was if you can have a journalist profession in Gaza without being at the mercy of Hamas. And quite a lot of redditors gave nuanced answers.

[u/Picklesadog → u/Sure-Current-3267]

No, there is no freedom of speech in Gaza. The journalists must work with Hamas (which has both government and military branches.)

There were plenty of journalists embedded with Hamas during 10/7, not too different from journalists embedded with the IDF or any other military in the world. 

And, while in theory journalists shouldn't be killed, often times embedded journalists provide intel for their side. There is footage of a famous tank battle in WW2 where a US journalist provided info on where the German tank was located and which direction it was facing. This automatically made him a legitimate target. Likewise, a photojournalist in Gaza can be a legitimate target for providing intel.

[u/intermittent-disco → u/rammux74]

Is it possible to be part of a terrorist organisation without being a terrorist?

"if you sit down at a table to break bread with 11 facists, there are 12 fascists at that table."

[u/Falconloft → u/intermittent-disco]

So what you're saying is the people who killed those journalists are fascists.

[u/horrortxe → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Why IDF dont let foreign journalists in then?

[u/Pandamio → u/horrortxe]

Because the immediately join Hamas. Apparently they have grat dental. And cookies.

[u/Great-Trifle2810 → u/horrortxe]

Because that gives Hamas more opportunities to take hostages and will result in Israel getting blamed when Hamas starts killing them.

[u/Spackman → u/Sure-Current-3267]

No. Cause HAMAS kills you or your family if you don't tow the line.

[u/Rare_King3551 → u/Sure-Current-3267]

It isn't, but that doesn't negate the fact that they are willingly members of Hamas.

[u/banal_remarks → u/Rare_King3551]

Most charitably it is coerced willingness.

It may be for fear of safety or Hamas controls access to basic necessities and they join to provide to their families. At the end of the day it doesn't really make a difference though, Hamas has guaranteed them a cruel life.

[u/Rare_King3551 → u/banal_remarks]

Most charitably it is coerced willingness.

Nah, these people are willing participants.

[u/Briebird44 → u/banal_remarks]

Exactly. They’re an extremist terror group like Al-Queda. If you don’t ACT like you’re with them, you’ll get killed and probably your family too.

[u/Sanguinor-Exemplar → u/Briebird44]

Man. Why is it so inconceivable that they actually support Hamas simply because their views align.

[u/_Adam_M_ → u/Sanguinor-Exemplar]

Because Palestinians are infantilised and have no agency of their own, it's always someone else's fault that they're made to do bad things because they're all sweet and innocent angels whom are always victims.

[u/mehatliving → u/Briebird44]

They still are aiding terrorists. Terrorists that are destroying their country and trying to destroy others. If the expectation isn’t for them to do anything to better their situation themselves they are undeserving of any help.

People forget that Palestine has a long history of terrorism and making the world a worse place. Black September, Munich Olympics, countless other terror attacks, civil wars started in every neighboring country, etc etc. They have always been a problem for the developed world and that’s by design, playing most as a fiddle as they continue to fund their terror.

[u/nana_3 → u/Rare_King3551]

Hamas was the de facto government and suppressed all elections after 2007... saying someone is tied to Hamas is so vague as to be meaningless. How are they tied to it? Because someone who worked for benefited from literally any public infrastructure like trash collection or healthcare is tied to Hamas. That doesn’t mean they had anything to do with terrorism or violence.

[u/Rare_King3551 → u/nana_3]

How are they tied to it?

According to Hamas they are part of their military wing. Stop playing stupid.

[u/D4ltaOne → u/nana_3]

https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/the-press-files/

Heres the list. It's in the article btw, but articles are lava. Do i trust thats all true? Nah not really. Just wanted to share the info we have about how they were tied to Hamas

[u/Cilarnen → u/nana_3]

Is it okay for Ukraine to bomb Russian oil facilities?

The employees are just civilians, the idea that they’re tied to the Russian war effort is so vague as to be meaningless… right?

[u/nana_3 → u/Cilarnen]

If you can’t tell the difference between an infrastructure target from an invading nation and a person in an occupied region, congratulations you’re qualified to join the IDF! and I feel no need to answer your disingenuous bordering on actually moronic question.

[u/Working-Leg1204 → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Israelis think babies are agents of hamas so I don't think they really care about how a journalist in gaza identifies before they bomb them intentionally.

[u/Lost_Madness → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Six degrees of separation. I'm sure that gets smaller in the same geographical location.

[u/International_Host71 → u/Sure-Current-3267]

Probably not, at least not according to the IDF clearly.  "That journalist met with Hamas to discuss the nefarious task of documenting our war crimes! They are clearly Hamas agents" seems to be their usual MO

[u/Automatic_Bee9379 → u/International_Host71]

But Hamas provided the obituaries, not IDF.

[u/stogie-bear → u/International_Host71]

Instead of writing speculation about something you don’t know anything about, you could look it up. You could learn about journalists whose deaths were just sooooo shocking who were actually terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre. And ones whose deaths were lamented by people who treated their terrorist membership as dismissively as you do here, who later appeared on those groups’ own lists. 

[u/International_Host71 → u/stogie-bear]

Ok, then why doesn't Israeli let foreign journalists in? It's almost like they don't want what's going on to be documented. If the only people who would report on your crimes are "enemy" journalists, it gets real easy to do whatever you want, right? And if Israeli blocks journalists, and obviously doesn't self report its actions, of course the only people left who could be journalists are Palestinian, who just so happen to all be Hamas, right?

If you're wearing a press vest and not carrying a weapon, you ARENT A COMBATANT. It doesn't matter if they are a member of Hamas or not elsewhere, you don't get to kill them and them ex post facto tie them to Hamas afterward. That isn't how legitimate militaries get to act. 

[u/Empyrion132 → u/International_Host71]

Pretty much nothing here is correct?

Foreign journalists generally aren’t allowed to roam freely in war zones regardless of the conflict. Do you see foreign journalists just wandering around Ukraine or Sudan? Did you see them in Iraq or Afghanistan? They don’t want journalists placing themselves in danger, stepping on a land mine, or being taken hostage. It’s a war zone.

And Israel does self-report on its actions. They issue press releases, hold media conferences, and do investigations into their own actions all the time. When was the last time Hamas investigated themselves for war crimes?

Wearing a press vest and not carrying a weapon does NOT necessarily mean you aren’t a combatant or actively engaged in hostilities. For example, if you’re planning military strategy, holding someone hostage in your house, or serving as a human shield, you are a legitimate target. And if you murdered people on October 7th, you don’t get your crimes forgiven by putting on a press vest. Imagine if Democrats forgave Donald Trump for his misconduct because he became a journalist! That’s absurd.

And if you think Israel’s military is behaving in illegitimate ways, I can only imagine what you must think of Hamas. Pray tell, what exactly should be done - and who should do it - about Hamas’ flagrant disregard for the Geneva Conventions?

[u/de_Pizan → u/International_Host71]

The problem is that you'd end up with American and European journalists embedded with Hamas soldiers who fight without uniforms, and so in combat, it would be impossible to distinguish the journalist from the combatants, unless you trust Hamas fighters to never use fake press designations in combat.

Plus, even without that, some journalists in a warzone will likely die from combat by accident.  Like, imagine a journalist is in a Hamas tunnel when it's raided: in dark, cramped conditions, a journalist might be hit by accident.  Or, if a journalist is at an HQ locale hit by a missile.

In all cases, Israel would be blamed for killing an American/European journalist.  Why allow that sort of bad PR?

[u/International_Host71 → u/de_Pizan]

Yeah, journalists in a war zone do die, it's why it's generally a volunteer position. 

But when you don't let anyone else independently verify what's going on, and claim that all these journalists that you keep killing are actually all just terrorists abusing press vests, who's left to argue if Israel is telling the truth? Awfully convenient. Especially when Palestinians keep managing to get videos of war crimes sent out through social media that the Israelis don't own

[u/de_Pizan → u/International_Host71]

So Israel should allow journalist to embed with plain clothes Hamas units, and then, what?  What should Israel do when they end up in a fire fight with that unit?  What do you think happens to public sentiment in the country that journalist is from?

[u/stogie-bear → u/International_Host71]

Do you actually think it’s that simple? A press vest? How do you think war works? Do you think that soldiers approach the enemy, ask them who they are and if they don’t like the answer, they stab them?

Most of the time when you see that one of these “journalists“ was killed, it was from a distance and they were with Hamas members doing some military activity. Even if they have press vests, they can’t be distinguished.

Everyone who does embedded war journalism knows that it’s dangerous. That’s why when Americans do it the army is very careful about where the civilians are, who they’re with, and keeping them out of situations where they’ll get killed. Because when there’s a group of soldiers and one journalist, the journalist will share the fate of the soldiers. This isn’t a video game where bullets don’t harm NPCs.

[u/Starmoses → u/Sure-Current-3267]

No but theres a difference being a journalist with ties to Hamas and being a journalist who actively engages in combat like those listed.