The IDF announced Monday it had eliminated Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Eslaih, a Hamas terrorist and former employee of CNN and the Associated Press, in a targeted airstrike in Khan Yunis.

Eslaih, a member of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade, was not only a combatant in the terrorist organization — he was also a photojournalist with a global portfolio, previously accredited by some of the world’s largest media outlets. Eslaih actively participated in the October 7 massacre, infiltrating southern Israel and sharing graphic footage of the attacks in real time on social media.

“This was not a journalist covering conflict,” an IDF spokesperson said. “This was a terrorist who used a camera as cover and social media as a weapon.”

Iran’s Mehr News Agency had previously referred to him as “Israel’s nightmare,” praising his “tireless coverage” of Gaza. A 2024 photo showing former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar kissing Eslaih circulated widely and further confirmed his deep ties to the terror group.

Both CNN and the AP claimed to have fired Eslaih immediately upon learning of his affiliation with Hamas — but the damage was already done.

Shortly after the revelations, the families of five victims of the Nova music festival massacre — May Naim, Lotan Abir, Guy Gabriel, Shalev Madmoni, and Shani Louk — filed a civil lawsuit in the Jerusalem District Court against the Associated Press and Reuters, demanding NIS 25 million (approximately $6.5 million) in damages.

The suit alleges that Eslaih and others functioned not as neutral journalists, but as active participants in the massacre, capturing and distributing horrifying images in real time — actions that the families argue made them “a component of the attack itself.”

While AP and CNN have yet to comment on the suit, Reuters confirmed last week to Jerusalem-based watchdog HonestReporting that it had removed all images by Gazan photographers with ties to terrorist groups, including Eslaih, from its content platform.

“When informed about possible problems with certain content… we investigated and took it down because the material didn’t comply with our partner content policy,” Reuters said in a statement.

Despite these removals, Eslaih’s images had already made their way into the archives of Getty, Sky News, and the New York Times.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)