Two Gazan “Journalists” Spotted in Hamas Martyr Videos

Two ostensible Gazan journalists were identified in Hamas martyr videos in September and were described by the terrorist organization as combatants.

In a Thursday martyr video commemorating terrorist Khaled Walid Baris published on Hamas-affiliated channels, the subject was shown alongside a man labeled as Shadi Al-Salfti. Al-Shafti was described in the Hamas video as a deceased “al-Qassam Martyr.”

In a subsequent scene, Al-Shafti appeared to be preparing some equipment with Baris.

Al-Shafti had previously been presented by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as a freelance photojournalist who had been killed in 2024 during the October 7 War. Getty Images also described Al-Shafti as a journalist in a caption of an Anadolu Agency-supplied photograph of his body being removed from the site of his death.

Photographs of Al-Shafti published by family members on social media matched the man in the Hamas video when run through AI analysis.

Earlier in the month, another journalist, Bahaa Okasha, was spotted in a Hamas martyr video for Hassan Muhammad Daher.

Okasha was already the subject of controversy before the September 1 video: According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), he was an employee of the Al-Aqsa Media Network. The network is controlled by Hamas, which includes the U.S.-sanctioned Al-Aqsa TV.

While Okasha was included in the IFJ and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) databases of Gazan journalists slain in the October 7 War, by May, CPJ had removed him for not meeting its definition of being a journalist.

In the video commemorating Daher, Okasha was seen performing close-quarters combat drills with his presumed colleague. A caption confirmed his name and labeled him a martyr fighter. As with Al-Shafti, AI analysis matched his face to professional photographs published after his death.

The revelations build on the growing corpus of evidence that the narrative that the IDF deliberately targets civilians has been greatly exaggerated. In August, HonestReporting completed the first version of its audit of the CPJ list of Gazan journalists, finding that 57% were tied to terrorist organizations.

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