LONDON, 09 Oct. - (ANA) - US-British journalist Mehdi Hassan confronted Israeli claims about Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza during a heated debate with Israeli officials on Piers Morgan Uncensored, after the Israeli military targeted the veteran journalist and other prominent Western commentators on social media over their continued criticism of Israel's three-year genocidal war on Gaza. 

 

On Monday, Hasan appeared on Morgan's talk show, where the Zeteo founder addressed Israel's claims that Palestinian journalists killed in the devastated Gaza Strip were members of armed groups.  

 

He also discussed being singled out in an Israeli military statement, alongside Morgan himself, UK writer Owen Jones and US content creator Hasan Piker, over their continued criticism of Israel's media restrictions in Gaza. 

 

Morgan, who was listed alongside Hasan and other public figures in the Israeli statement, said an Israeli military spokesperson had been invited to appear on the programme to discuss the allegations but did not take part in the segment. 

 

"What the [Israeli military] are doing with putting this video out, they're trying to smear anybody who suggests that a large number of journalists were killed for being journalists because that is a war crime," Morgan said. 

 

"The evidence is either nonexistent or extremely flimsy about a large number of these people. And ultimately if you conflate everybody employed by the Hamas government as a militant terrorist, you are showing either a gross misunderstanding of what was happening there or you're simply hoping no one's going to notice the difference." 

 

Morgan and Hasan also addressed comments by former Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy, who said the Israeli army had since put its “crosshairs” on the prominent commentators in a post on X.  

 

They described the reaction as a threat. 

 

Hasan also became embroiled in a heated debate with Israel's Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal and former Israeli military spokesperson Jonathan Conricus over recent developments.  

 

He challenged pro-Israel narratives supporting the release of a list issued by the Israeli military last week, which claimed that 170 slain Palestinians were not legitimate media workers but members of “terrorist groups”. 

 

In response, Hasan disputed the claims, citing the Gaza war documentary NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, which centres on Israeli military insiders who describe what they say was the reckless killing of civilians in the war-torn territory. 

 

"That is the truth that [the Israeli military] don't want said on international media- which is that the people they kill and call terrorists were not terrorists in many cases," he said. 

 

The Israeli military claimed that 118 of the slain Palestinian media workers named on the published list were affiliated with Hamas' military wing and 49 with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 

 

 It also claimed that two belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees and one to the Mujahideen Brigades. 

 

The army further claimed that 17 of those named had participated in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. 

 

The Israeli military published the names on a website alongside documents and visual material it presented as "evidence" of the individuals' alleged affiliations and roles.  

 

However, there has been no independent verification of the allegations beyond the military's claims claims. 

 

The New Arab previously reported that, following the release of the list, the families and colleagues of deceased journalists named in it rejected the allegations, as media workers in Gaza have continued to work under the threat of Israeli targeting and bombardment. 

 

Previously speaking to TNA, Tahseen al-Astal, deputy head of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate in Gaza, condemned the Israeli claims as part of what he described as a "systematic campaign" to undermine the professional standing of Palestinian journalists killed during the war. 

 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has also documented dozens of cases in which it concluded that journalists were deliberately targeted because of their reporting.  

 

The organisation has filed multiple complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC), alleging war crimes against the press.  - (ANA) - 

 

AB/ANA/09 October 2026 - - -