The Israel Defense Forces dropped a bombshell report Thursday, releasing evidence that showed that a staggering 170 journalists who were killed in Gaza were in fact terrorists affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other groups.

“Following extensive research, the IDF is now revealing that 170 Gazans killed during the war who were presented as journalists and media personnel were in fact serving as terrorists for terror organizations in the Strip, foremost among them Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” the military said.

The claim is based on “verified evidence, including visual material and documents produced by the terror organizations, some of which were found in the field, indicating the organizational affiliation of those terrorists and the roles they held within the terror organizations” that the IDF has released.

The army slammed the international community for repeatedly accusing Israel of targeting journalists.

Media outlets “repeatedly accused Israel and the IDF, without presenting verified findings, of deliberately harming journalists,” the IDF said. “This was despite the fact that in some cases the terror organizations themselves presented those individuals as terrorists in their ranks and even claimed responsibility for them.”

“The information now being revealed illustrates the gap between the picture presented to the world and the reality on the ground, and presents additional and conclusive evidence that the IDF does not deliberately and systematically target journalists, but rather terror organizations and their terrorists, in accordance with international law,” the military added.

Some of the findings include the following:

• 118 “journalists” belonged to Hamas’ military wing, 49 to PIJ, two to the Popular Resistance Committees, and one to the Mujahideen Brigades.
• Seventeen of them participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
• Some of them worked for international media outlets such as Reuters, CNN, ABC Australia, BBC, AFP, AP, and Le Monde.