The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s largest advocacy group for reporters, quietly removed, with no public acknowledgment, eight confirmed terrorists from its widely cited list of journalists killed in Gaza. The expurgations, revealed for the first time by the Washington Free Beacon, are raising fresh questions about the influential organization’s credibility and repeated claims that “the Israeli army has deliberately targeted journalists.”
Like the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists—a high-profile organization packed with anti-Israel personalities that’s been consumed by infighting over its inclusion of active Palestinian militants on its own list of slain “journalists”—the IFJ’s Gaza journalists list has been repeatedly used by major news organizations to discredit Israel’s war operations.
The Brussels-based IFJ—the self-styled “global voice of journalists” claiming to represent “600,000 media professionals from 187 trade unions and associations in more than 140 countries”—administers a running tally of “journalists” killed in Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree. The organization claims to have “evidence” that Israel intentionally murders journalists. But at least eight names on its much-touted list disappeared between June 21 and July 9, according to new research from the media watchdog group HonestReporting, which noted that IFJ “has not issued a statement regarding this removal of names.” CPJ engaged in a similar, secretive removal process, the Free Beacon first reported in May, prompting the embattled organization to announce shortly after that it is conducting a wholesale review of its list.
The latest findings are certain to raise questions about the lesser-known IFJ as its more prominent peer, CPJ, faces a torrent of criticism over its own list, which in some cases relied on IFJ’s disputed findings. Both organizations have been widely cited in American and international media outlets, though virtually all of those publishers have been tight-lipped when faced with Free Beacon inquiries about their reliance on both groups. The IFJ’s findings, for instance, have been featured in the Guardian, CNN, NBC News, the BBC, the Associated Press, Newsweek, Voice of America, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), AFP, and France24, among others. Only one of these outlets, CBC, responded to a request for comment on the credibility of IFJ’s list or the recent removals, with the Canadian broadcaster saying that “we regularly assess the credibility of sources we cite.”
HonestReporting, in a statement to the Free Beacon, said “it is likely no accident that IFJ removed names from its list in the same period as CPJ’s acknowledgement.”
The questions surrounding IFJ’s slain journalists list mirror the ongoing crisis at CPJ, which was thrust into internal chaos and quarreling after the Free Beacon reported on the group’s persistent anti-Israel bias. The controversy deepened earlier this month when CPJ’s board of directors voted 17 to 1 in favor of defining “organizations affiliated with militant groups” as legitimate journalistic outlets “provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect.”
Like CPJ, the IFJ has now been caught erasing names from its list after Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups published obituaries identifying the slain “journalists” as combatants.
The IFJ makes clear that it is not a disinterested party, claiming “the Israeli government [is] deliberately using starvation as a weapon against the people of Gaza” and that “Palestinian journalists and media workers are the only ones bearing witness to the atrocities.” The advocacy group says it is working to “verify information in real time” alongside its partners in the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, a similarly biased organization that notably claimed in December of last year that “the Israeli occupation shifted from a policy of restricting journalistic work to a policy of neutralising the press through deadly force.”
While the IFJ notes that it is “working hard to keep” the list of slain journalists “up-to-date and accurate,” it does not publicly disclose its methodology or the mechanisms used to verify that those named are actually journalists, rather than terrorist operatives. The group only notes that it is “seeking multiple sources for each name added, and concentrating on those who worked as journalists and media workers.”
It is now clear that eight of those once publicly featured on IFJ’s list were directly linked to terrorist activities when they were killed, according to HonestReporting. Their disappearance from IFJ’s list suggests that the advocacy group is also aware of these findings, given that it deleted several online biographies that previously identified these individuals as legitimate reporters.
Hussam Al Adlouni, for instance, was listed on IFJ’s website as a “journalist” through late June. His name was missing from the list by early July after a “martyr” notice was posted on Telegram claiming him as a Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades field commander, according to HonestReporting. The photograph on the notice showed Adlouni wearing a keffiyeh and holding a camera.
Around the same time, IFJ scrubbed a page for Rasheed Albably, who the organization once listed as a “freelance journalist” killed “in an Israeli airstrike” on June 6. His name was removed after it became clear that Albably was an Al-Qassam fighter who died in Gaza while hiding inside a United Nations school. The Israel Defense Forces also identified him as a Hamas combatant, prompting his wife to reportedly describe Albably as a “heroic martyr.”
The third individual, Maisara Ahmed Salah, was described by IFJ as a reporter with the “Quds News Network” who was killed in December 2024. That name disappeared by early July after the Al-Qassam Brigades published a video obituary on its website that tied Salah to terrorist operations. Salah was also recently removed from CPJ’s list for engaging in “hostilities.”
Abdul Rahman Bahr, a purported “photographer and camera operator for Palestine Breaking News website,” was touted on IFJ’s website as of late June. That page was deleted after a “martyr notice” was published on Facebook by the Jabalia City Al-Omari Mosque listing Bahr as a “mujahid,” or holy warrior. While Bahr’s organizational affiliation remains unknown, his brother, Mustafa Bahr, served as a brigade commander in the Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades, a Gaza-based jihadist group. His name was also deleted from IFJ’s database, HonestReporting found.
Another individual, Mohammad Manhal Abu Armanah, was described by IFJ as a “journalist” killed by Israel during a July 2024 airstrike in Khan Younis. His page was removed around late June, after the Al-Qassam Brigades published a video tribute on its website. Abu Armanah worked for Palestine Now, a Hamas-affiliated outlet, and also worked in the Al-Qassam Brigades’ “Military Media Department,” according to HonestReporting.
Two others—Tariq Al-Maidna and Wafa Al-Udaini—received similar treatment from IFJ. Their listings were deleted from IFJ’s website around the same time the other names were removed. Al-Maidna was a freelance camera operator for Yemen TV, controlled by Ansar Allah, more widely known as the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist organization. Al-Udaini was described by IFJ as a “woman journalist” who was killed alongside her husband, Munir Atiya Al-Adin. The post failed to mention that Al-Adin was a commander in the military manufacturing unit of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades.
The IFJ did not respond to a Free Beacon request for comment on the deleted entries or its methodology.
HonestReporting said its findings raise significant questions in light of the turmoil facing CPJ and the international media’s ongoing reliance on advocacy groups that evidence clear anti-Israel bias.
“IFJ has been one of several organizations that has developed the false narrative that Israel has deliberately and systematically killed journalists since October 7. The crack in the narrative first developed with CPJ’s acknowledgement that it had been presenting combatants and terrorists as journalists, and now it seems that the lie has continued to crumble,” the watchdog group said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “IFJ has made these revisions silently, not providing public updates to those that cited its figures. For the sake of transparency, IFJ should explain its methodology for adding journalists to such documents, and why it is removing some now.”
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