On October 17, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published a statement saying it killed four Hamas operatives “in separate strikes” in the Gaza Strip. The IDF named Ubaida Murtaja among those killed in the strikes, adding that he was a “sniper operative” in the Islamist group’s military apparatus.
Palestinian outlets soon offered a sharply different account. They described Murtaja as a “journalist” and said he was killed when a drone struck a group of civilians in the al-Itali area of western Gaza City. Along with the news publications, social media users posted videos of Murtaja’s grieving family members, which added to the impression that Israel killed an innocent journalist. This impression is given amid allegations by Palestinian groups and NGOs that the IDF is deliberately targeting Gazan journalists. While the grief of Murtaja’s family members was genuine, open-source evidence shows that Murtaja was not just a journalist; he was a member of Hamas, as the IDF claimed.
A Telegram channel seemingly associated with Hamas published a poster of Murtaja on October 17, calling him a Qassam (Hamas) fighter and a member of the group’s Shuja’iyya battalion. Adding to the evidence that Murtaja was a Hamas member, a video published on Facebook of his funeral shows him wearing a green bandana belonging to the terrorist organization.
Murtaja’s case is not isolated. HonestReporting has documented multiple instances of terrorists in Gaza posing as journalists. It’s not an uncommon phenomenon. In fact, there was evidence years before the war that Hamas and other terrorist organizations were posing as press members. In one example, open-source evidence emerged in 2018 that a member of Hamas’s security forces worked as a journalist.
The use of civilian cover extends beyond journalism. Open-source evidence has demonstrated that members of Hamas and its allies, like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, embedded terrorists in non-governmental organizations.
These cases raise a broader concern. Armed groups may use civilian roles to shape the information leaving Gaza and to influence aid operations within the enclave.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
