On October 23, 2023, Mohammed Imad Labad, a reporter for the Al Resalah news website, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.
In June 2026, CPJ undertook a review of its documentation of journalists and media workers killed in the Israel-Gaza war since 2023, and examined online claims alleging that Labad was a combatant.
The claims identified by CPJ centered around a circulated screenshot of a Facebook post by a family member hinting at a possible combatant role without explicitly claiming such role or providing evidence to support it, specifically a claim that he had ties to a known combatant.
Two independent credible sources and one family source confirmed that he was an active journalist and had no military affiliations.
CPJ was unable to identify credible images, armed-group obituaries, official statements, or other reliable information demonstrating that he held a military role or was an active combatant at the time of his death.
CPJ found no credible evidence that he held a military role or was an active combatant at the time of his death. Labad therefore qualified as a journalist under the organization’s methodology, and CPJ has retained him in its database.
CPJ continues to review its documentation and will update its findings if credible new information emerges.