The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon

Another journalist has been killed by Israel in Gaza, adding to the list of Palestinian media workers who have been targeted by the IDF since October 2023.

This is the narrative that is being put forward by mainstream media organizations (including NBC News and The Guardian) and Middle East-focused NGOs about the killing of Al Jazeera’s Ahmad Washah.

However, like many other Gazan “journalists” who have been killed during the Israel-Hamas War, this simplistic narrative is far from the whole truth.

Washah was not just a simple cameraman documenting the trials and tribulations of daily life in the Gaza Strip for Qatari state media. He was also allegedly a terrorist member of Hamas, responsible for planning and executing attacks against Israeli targets.

According to the IDF, Washah was a Hamas sniper who helped coordinate these attacks with his brother Muhammad, a senior member of Hamas’ rocket and missile unit who also masqueraded as an Al Jazeera journalist until he was killed by Israel in April 2026.

🔴AL JAZEERA JOURNALIST EXPOSED: Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah, who served as an Al Jazeera photojournalist, was simultaneously a Hamas sniper operative and eliminated in a precise strike in central Gaza.

In recent months, he advanced sniper attack plans and worked alongside his…

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 20, 2026

Following the IDF’s assertion that Washah was a terrorist acting as a journalist, analysts have dug up evidence that appears to corroborate the IDF’s allegations.

OSINT investigator Eitan Fischberger uncovered social media images of Washah posing with firearms, including scoped rifles, and independent analyst and HonestReporting board member Salo Aizenberg shared an AI-generated image that was spread by a Gazan mosque, celebrating Washah and two other Hamas-affiliated terrorists as “mujahids.

The Arabic term “mujahid” largely refers to those who engage in the act of jihad, or Islamic holy war.

Joe Truzman, an analyst for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, posted on his X page that several of the people in Washah’s social circle (as gleaned from his social media pictures) were known members of Palestinian terror groups, including one Hamas member who was killed while attempting to attack an IDF position.

In addition to these findings, Washah was killed alongside Siba’i Abu Hasna, a member of Hamas’ Shadow Unit, which was responsible for guarding hostages who were kidnapped into Gaza.

According to reports, Abu Hasna was the Hamas terrorist who Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov was cruelly forced to kiss on the forehead before being released in a staged ceremony.

As Truzman points out in his analysis, not one of the above-mentioned pieces of evidence conclusively proves Washah’s terror affiliation.

However, taken as a whole, the fact that he was photographed with a scoped rifle, was mourned as a “mujahid,” was affiliated with several Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists (including his brother), and was killed alongside Hamas terrorists strongly supports the veracity of the IDF’s allegations (which are presumably based on unreleased pieces of intelligence).

The question of the day is whether Al- Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah was a member of Hamas or another terrorist organization.

A review of his online footprint reveals several indicators consistent with the IDF’s claim that he was affiliated with Hamas. While AI-generated images… pic.twitter.com/NKtCxDzN0y

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) June 21, 2026

Despite the overwhelming evidence pointing to the likelihood that Ahmed Washah was a Hamas terrorist who moonlighted as an Al Jazeera journalist, this has not stopped international NGOs and media organizations from condemning his killing, rather than condemning his cynical exploitation of the journalistic profession for terrorist purposes.

Most notably, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an organization dedicated to defending journalists around the world, expressed it alarm at the killing of Washah.

This is not at all surprising, given the CPJ’s history of sanitizing terrorists and propagandists and treating them as bona fide journalists.

Over the past three years, the CPJ has done this for scores of anti-Israel terrorists and propagandists, including Washah’s own Hamas-affiliated brother, who was killed a few month ago.

Once again, @pressfreedom fails journalists in Gaza and around the world.

The CPJ is quick to condemn Israel for killing a supposed journalist.

But when that same person is accused of being a Hamas terrorist who masqueraded as a journalist, endangering the lives of other… https://t.co/XOjY5BqCsY pic.twitter.com/A5iQ3Esgi9

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 21, 2026

When a Gazan journalist with alleged terror ties is killed by the IDF, the first instinct by mainstream media organizations and NGOs should not be to reflexively dismiss the evidence provided by Israel and rally around the journalist.

Rather, they should be doing their due diligence by investigating the Israeli allegations and not instinctively defending a terror-affiliated journalist.

However, objective investigation of claims about terrorist affiliation would harm the narrative propagated by these outlets and organizations — where Israel is the aggressor that is targeting journalists in order to silence them for telling the truth.

In this day and age, it appears that the false narrative is more important for these media outlets and international organizations than uncovering the truth behind what is happening in Gaza.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.