The BBC logo is displayed above the entrance to the BBC headquarters in London, Britain, July 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams

A new investigation found that dozens of Palestinians identified by the BBC as journalists killed in Gaza had ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups, adding to scrutiny of wartime media death tolls after the Committee to Protect Journalists last week removed another 22 names from its tally, months after dropping several Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.

An investigation by the UK’s Telegraph newspaper examined a BBC Arabic report listing more than 180 journalists killed during the war and found that 53 of those named had ties to Hamas or other terrorist groups. The BBC said that the report, last updated in August 2025, was based on information available at the time and that it was reviewing the names following CPJ’s findings.

Nineteen of the 22 people removed in its latest review were dropped after new research established that they had “engaged in combat,” CPJ said, while the other three were found not to be journalists or media workers. The review covered 229 deaths and also reinstated six people and reclassified 12 others.

“The accuracy and credibility of CPJ’s research are fundamental to our mission and to efforts to seek accountability and justice for journalists and media workers around the world,” the group’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement.

CPJ launched the review in June after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published obituaries identifying several people who the watchdog had counted as journalists as members of their armed wings. It initially removed eight people after concluding they had been combatants.

Among the 53 cases highlighted by the Telegraph was Abdullah Darwish, whom BBC Arabic identified as a cameraman for Al-Aqsa TV. The newspaper reported that Darwish took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel as a member of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades; CPJ later removed him from its casualty database. It also cited Yaqoub Al-Barsh, identified by the BBC as an executive at Gaza’s Namaa radio station, who was listed by the Al-Qassam Brigades among its “martyrs.” 

Others on the BBC list appeared in online material carrying weapons or wearing military fatigues. One, Rizq Abu Shakian, described by the BBC as a journalist for Palestine Now, appeared in a video wearing Hamas military clothing and holding an automatic rifle. 

Twelve of the 53 people identified by the Telegraph had also appeared in CPJ’s casualty database before being removed. Ten were described as journalists not only by BBC Arabic but also in English-language BBC coverage, according to the newspaper. 

The revisions extend beyond the BBC and CPJ. The International Federation of Journalists removed eight names from its own Gaza casualty list earlier this summer, including several people who had also been dropped by CPJ after being identified as combatants. The Brussels-based federation did not publicly announce the removals at the time. 

The IFJ list has been cited by major news organizations, including The Guardian, CNN, NBC News, the BBC, the Associated Press, Newsweek, Voice of America, CBC, AFP, and France24.

Andrew Fox, a former British Army officer and research fellow at the UK-based Henry Jackson Society, criticized news organizations for doing little to correct earlier claims about journalist deaths.

“They smeared Israel across the world, and now the truth is out, they have gone silent,” Fox told The Algemeiner at the time. 

Despite its own removals, CPJ maintains that Israeli forces “remain responsible for by far the majority of killings of journalists and media workers worldwide since 2023,” according to a statement. 

CPJ said its determinations are based on whether someone meets its definition of a journalist, “not an individual’s affiliation or views,” including affiliation with terrorist groups, but that “no journalist engaged in combat is included as a case under CPJ’s mandate.” During its review, the group updated its rules to say that active membership in a military or militant wing counts as combat.

Media watchdog HonestReporting said CPJ nevertheless applied that standard inconsistently, pointing to two people who remain in its database despite Palestinian Islamic Jihad notices identifying them as members of its Central Military Media Unit.