Researchers find that health workers and media are listed as terrorists in Gaza’s death toll
Researchers are watching agitationHealth Department death reports run by Fox News Digital said a growing number of “martyrs” were being outed as terrorists by groups such as Hamas, despite retaining their public identities as health care or media workers.
Gabriel Epstein, senior policy fellow at the Israel Policy Forum, told Fox News Digital that he tracked down several individuals named by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as martyrs killed in battle in Gaza who held positions in the health industry, including NGOs.
US-backed Gaza aid group criticizes Doctors Without Borders, accuses it of spreading “false” claims
Smoke rises and a ball of fire rises above buildings in Gaza City on October 9, 2023, during an Israeli airstrike. (Sameh Rahmi/Nour Photo via Getty Images)
Epstein found several individuals classified as medical staff who were also members of terrorist groups. The most dangerous thing revealed by the list of martyrs is Fadi Al-Wadiya, a physiotherapist with Doctors Without Borders, who was killed by… Israel Defense Forces In June 2024. MSF responded to the death, saying it was “outraged” and “strongly condemns the killing of our colleague.”
When the Israeli military claimed that Al-Wadiya was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, MSF said they had “no prior knowledge” of his “alleged involvement in military activities” and said they had “received no official explanation” about the “circumstances of his death.”
In a Telegram account claiming to be the media reserve for the Al-Quds Brigades, a post mourning the martyrdom of Al-Wadiya on February 24 stated that the physical therapist is an assistant to the military manufacturing unit in the Al-Quds Brigades affiliated with the Islamic Jihad in Palestine.
Fox News Digital asked Doctors Without Borders whether they were aware of Wedadiya’s connections to PIJ before the martyrdom announcement. A company spokesperson said: “We will not knowingly employ people who engage in military activity” because doing so “would pose a risk to our employees and patients by compromising our neutrality.”
Hamas terrorists march through Gaza during a military parade. (Getty Images)
An MSF spokesperson said: “MSF had no indication that Fadi Al-Wadiya might be involved in military activity of any kind prior to the Israeli authorities’ online posts in June 2024. In the immediate aftermath of Al-Wadiya’s killing, we requested clarifications from the Israeli authorities, but received no official response. If the Israeli authorities were aware of Al-Wadiya’s links to armed activities, they never shared this information with us until after his killing. To this day, it is the only information they have shared.” “What we are aware of is what was shared through public social media posts.”
The Israeli army has banned MSF’s operations in Gaza since the beginning of March because the organization refused to provide a list of the names of its Palestinian employees. In response to questions from Fox News Digital about whether they would consider providing this list to the Israeli military at this time, an MSF spokesperson said: “We have not shared our staff lists with Israel because we have not received concrete guarantees to ensure the safety of our staff or the independent management of our operations. This is where humanitarian workers have repeatedly been detained, assaulted and killed. We have a responsibility to protect our colleagues from harm.”
Epstein shared several other cases of health care workers who played prominent roles in terrorist groups.
Ambulances transport patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza City. October 12, 2024. (Hamza Z.H. Qariqi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Palestinian Nursing and Midwifery Syndicate Facebook page mourned Muhammad Akram Abdullah Al-Kafarna in his capacity as nursing supervisor at Kamal Adwan Hospital, and the Institute for Palestine Studies as head of the nursing system in Gaza. The Telegram account, which includes members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ best equipped brigades, describes al-Kafarna as one of the “Qassam martyrs” in Beit Hanoun.
Ayman Suleiman Aliyan Abu Tair was martyred in Khan Yunis in June 2025, and the Institute for Palestine Studies describes him as a nurse and head of the clinical nutrition department at Nasser Hospital. According to a Telegram account linked to the Jerusalem Brigades of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine, Abu Tir was a commander in the central operations unit of the Jerusalem Brigades.
Jaber Abdel Hamid Diab Mohammadin mourned Palestinian Ministry of Health General Directorate of Nursing Facebook page as an intensive care unit nurse at Al-Rantisi Specialized Hospital for Children. A telegram account linked to the Islamic Jihad movement states that Muhammadin is a commander in the military industrialization unit of the Al-Quds Brigade of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine.
Nidal Jaber Abdel Fattah Al-Najjar is described as an administrator in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, according to the Institute for Palestine Studies, while one of the mourners indicated on Facebook that he works at the Rantisi Children’s Hospital. He was labeled on a Telegram account decorated with Hamas’s distinctive red triangle, as a martyr commander of Hamas’s Radwan Brigade.
Israeli army forces were seen operating in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
Salo Eisenberg, director of the media watchdog group HonestReporting, told Fox News Digital that he is tracking at least 10 “almost indisputable” examples of journalists who are actually combatants, working with Hamas and other terrorist groups.
David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that he was also tracking the revelations. “With PIJ, the number of leaders operating under civilian cover is impressive,” Adesnik said. “We have reached a point where the evidence suggests that this duplication has been a routine part of a strategy to infiltrate civilian organizations, especially humanitarian organizations. This provides access and protection while ensuring outrage when these supposed humanitarian workers are killed.”
Adesnik said he believes “it is possible that Hamas has also used this strategy in a systematic way, but at the moment we basically have it PIJ Disclosures. “Given that Hamas is many times larger, if it revealed this kind of information, the effects could easily extend to the humanitarian sector in Gaza.”
Among the cases Eisenberg tracks are media workers. He said his list “is based solely on confessions from those groups and other Gaza sources” and “does not include the numerous additional examples identified through Israeli evidence.”
Yahya Sinwar, the former Hamas leader killed by the Israeli army, waves to a crowd in Gaza. (Mustafa Hassouna/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Although the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) cites Jacob Al-Barsh As a journalist and executive director of Nama Radio, Eisenberg found “numerous social media posts and martyrdom notices identifying him as a fighter and a ‘mujahid’.” This includes a Facebook post from an account affiliated with the Omari Mosque in Jabalia.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says Ahmed Abu Sharia was a freelance journalist working for media outlets such as Iran’s Tasnim news agency. According to what was reported by the “official” Telegram website. Mujahideen BrigadesThe military wing of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, and he was also a member of the Mujahideen Brigades.
Rizq Abu Shakyan was “a media worker and director of the pro-Hamas Palestine Now Agency,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Shakyan also appears in Hamas uniform on the Telegram website, which publishes pictures of Palestinian martyrs. According to Eisenberg’s research, he was a member of the Al-Qassam Brigades.
In response to questions about whether CPJ will update lists of journalists alleged to be affiliated with terrorism, the group directed Fox News Digital to its list-updating policy, which states, “CPJ has a long-standing policy of updating its statements and accompanying narratives without issuing formal corrections as new information becomes available over time. In some cases, the record may be removed from public view when new information leads CPJ to determine that a case falls outside its jurisdiction or for security considerations, such as The safety of the journalist and his family.” CPJ will publicly record when it removes a journalist from the database for a reason outside of security concerns.
Click here to download the FOX NEWS app
As the fragile ceasefire in Gaza continues, analysts say they continue to place importance on closely examining war casualties. “Reviewing cases of militants who held dual civilian roles in key sectors such as media, healthcare and education is important for the historical record and highlights the media constraints faced by the press, government and analysts in real time during conflict,” Epstein said. “Over time, identifying the militants could give an idea of how deep Hamas, PIJ and other armed groups control key sectors of Gaza,” he said.
Post Comment