Gabriel Epstein Profile picture
Mar 22 12 tweets 8 min read Read on X
Palestinian Islamic Jihad recently published the names of an additional 85 commanders killed during the Gaza war. This thread will cover the second half of the list (see next tweet for the first), which includes commanders in media, medical, and police roles. Details below: 🧵 Image
Analysis of the first half of the list is here:
Hassan Abdulfattah Farajallah Farajallah (ID#: 800183485, age 39), an executive at the PIJ-affiliated al-Quds Today TV as well as a news presenter, was the commander of PIJ’s Mobilization Unit in the Northern Brigade. He was also, according to his Facebook page and other social media posts, a human development coach and educator at multiple Gazan schools.

Farajallah was killed in a December 2023 airstrike, and is listed by the IFJ and Hamas-run Government Media Office, though not the Committee to Protect Journalists, as a journalist killed during the war.Image
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Murshid Mohammed Murshid Abu Abdullah (ID#: 802290056, age 36), a commander in PIJ’s internal security unit for the Khan Younis Brigade, was the managing director of the al-Baraka Specialized Health Center, a government-run primary care clinic in Deir al-Balah, and is listed by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry as a radiology technician at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Abu Abdullah was killed in a July 2025 airstrike.Image
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Rami Talal Mohammed Jarghoun (ID#: 800669095, age 37), a PIJ commander in the al-Balad Battalion’s Support Unit within the Khan Younis Brigade, is listed by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry as an administrative supervisor at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Jarghoun was killed in a September 2024 airstrike.Image
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Ahmed Hanafi Ahmed Abu Tarabish (ID#: 800536831, age 39), a PIJ commander in the Northern Brigade's Surveillance Unit, was also a police captain, based on photos posted by his family. Abu Tarabish was killed in a December 2024 airstrike. Image
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Summary of combined list of 85 slain PIJ commanders:
72 commanders are directly connected to one of PIJ’s five regional brigade: Gaza (20), Northern (17), Khan Younis (16), Central (11), and Rafah (8); 13 others are connected to centralized PIJ units.

The 85 commanders span a wide array of ranks: 11 deputy battalion commanders, 13 commanders in centralized PIJ units, 39 commanders in various centralized brigade-level units, 10 commanders from battalion-level support units, 2 Nukhba commanders, and 10 field-level squad commanders.

76 of the 85 commanders (89%) can be found on the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health death toll list.

16 held an initially confirmable civilian/dual position, including:
- 4 journalists/media workers
- 5 nurses or other healthcare workers
- 2 lawyers
- 1 police captainImage
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PIJ has announced the names of 166 slain commanders in the last month. The introduction of field-level commanders into the latest list likely means more announcements of lower-ranking commanders will come with time.

This style—major releases of obituary posters with specific information about roles within PIJ—is the opposite of Hamas’ approach thus far. Post-ceasefire, Hamas has slowly but steadily released individual obituaries without a clear order by rank or area, and largely limited details about role beyond distinguishing between commanders and rank-and-file militants. However, while PIJ obituaries amount mostly to posters, Hamas also releases highly-produced obituary videos and supporting media.
Links:
List and obituary posters begin here: t.me/sarayaps/20081
Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry dashboard: sehatty.ps/public/
Health Ministry death toll list analyzed with a link to the data: x.com/GabrielEpstein…

All links supporting details about individuals highlighted in either thread or more comprehensive identification of anyone on the PIJ commanders list available on request.
Abu Abdullah is listed in a Hamas-run Health Ministry dashboard that contains a disaggregated list of reported healthcare workers killed. To access the list, go to the link below, click the “Health Staff” tab, right-click the admin and services column, and select “view as a table” to search Abu Abdullah's ID within that list. sehatty.ps/public/
Social media posts about Jarghoun show him in scrubs and state that he worked at the European hospital, but are not clear about his role. A Hamas-run Health Ministry dashboard, however, contains a disaggregated list of claimed healthcare workers killed. To see it, go to the link below, click the “Health Staff” tab, right-click the admin and services column, and select “view as a table”. By searching Jarghoun's ID number, one can find he is listed as an administrative supervisor at the European hospital. sehatty.ps/public/Image
Farajallah was previously identified by @MiddleEastBuka -- what's new is PIJ giving more detail about his position within the organization.

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More from @GabrielEpsteinX

May 7
On May 6, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published another set of 17 of their slain commanders in Gaza, bringing the total identified since February to 292. This set includes journalists, health and education workers, and police and internal security personnel. 🧵 Image
PIJ confirmed prior reporting first done by @MiddleEastBuka that Mohammed al-Saeed Ismail Abu Sakhil (ID#: 803231604, age 32), a journalist for the Sawt al-Quds Radio station, was a platoon commander in PIJ’s Financial Administration Unit in the Gaza Brigade. Both Sakhil and his brother (another journalist) were killed in fighting in and near Shifa Hospital in March-April 2024. x.com/GabrielEpstein…Image
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Mohammed Abdulnasser Mohammed al-Masri (ID#: 802443788, age 33), a teacher and the husband of journalist Salam Khalil Mohammed Mayma (ID#: 802820001, age 32), was a commander in PIJ’s Central Coordination Unit in the Northern Brigade. Both al-Masri and Mayma, along with their three children, were killed in an October 2023 airstrike. More detail on their case is here: x.com/GabrielEpstein…
Read 10 tweets
May 6
The likely target of an Oct 10, 2023 airstrike in Gaza that killed journalist Salam Khalil Mohammed Mayma (ID#: 802820001, age 32): her husband, PIJ commander Mohammed Abdulnasser Mohammed al-Masri (ID#: 802443788, age 33). 🧵 Image
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Today, PIJ claimed al-Masri as a commander in its Central Coordination Unit in the Northern Brigade. al-Masri was also a teacher at multiple schools, including a stretch at the Adnan al-Alami Secondary School for Boys in al-Shati neighborhood in Gaza City. al-Masri and Mayma reportedly wed in 2015.Image
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Salam Khalil Mayma is included on the Committee to Protect Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, and the Hamas-run Government Media Office’s list of slain journalists in Gaza, as well as outside trackers.
Mayma was the head of the Women Journalists Committee at the Palestinian Media Assembly, which CPJ identified as a PIJ-affiliated body. CPJ lists her as a freelance journalist, while IFJ identifies her as a reporter for the PIJ-affiliated al-Quds Radio.Image
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Read 6 tweets
Apr 20
Last week, a new U.N. Women report claimed that more than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025, or 47 per day. This is a speculative projection based on a projection, not a data point, and was widely misreported. 🧵 Image
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An initial problem is that the press release for the U.N. Women Advocacy Brief “The Cost of War in Gaza on Women and Girls” and the report itself say two different things: the press release (L) presents the 38,000 figure as fact while the report (R) is clear that it is an estimate, not a count.Image
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News articles about the report, not surprisingly, largely use the incorrect framing of the press release. That’s a disservice to readers, and a failure both of U.N. Women to match the press release and report and of media organizations to check the details. Image
Read 17 tweets
Mar 26
A good example of wartime misinformation: a Nov 2025 al-Jazeera English article about Israa al-Areer, a Gazan freelance journalist, and her search for her missing husband Yasser al-Tawil and brother Diaa al-Areer fails to mention both were Hamas militants killed on October 7. 🧵 Image
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al-Jazeera and al-Areer tell one story in English, but open-source documentation and an article by the Felesteen Arabic-language outlet (below), which also interviewed al-Areer only 3 days after the October 7 attack tells a very different one. Below, a side-by-side comparison of several key points, with all links at the end of the thread.Image
To al-Jazeera (in English. L), al-Areer says that her husband, Yasser Zuhair Ahmed al-Tawil (ID#: 803617968, age 30) typically spent Friday nights with friends and was out late. But to Felesteen (in Arabic, R), who identified al-Tawil as a Qassam Brigades fighter, al-Areer describes al-Tawil as dressing in his military uniform and departing for al-Ribat, which the article translates as vigil/guard duty (see title in previous post).

al-Areer tells al-Jazeera (L) that her husband was part of a group of “curious citizens” who went to the border area to see what was going on after the 10/7 attack began. But to Felesteen (R), she speaks of her husband’s longtime participation in the “ranks of the resistance” and his desire to join the attack.Image
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Read 12 tweets
Mar 20
Yesterday, Palestinian Islamic Jihad published the names of an additional 86 commanders killed during the Gaza war. Due to the list's size, this thread will analyze one half, which includes 3 journalists, 3 nurses, and 2 lawyers, among others. Details below: 🧵 Image
Many of those listed were previously known to be PIJ commanders or to hold dual roles, but others were not previously identifiable from open-source information. I believe most of these initial journalist IDs were first made by @MiddleEastBuka (apologies to anyone who was first). Links for specific persons and the full set of announcements available -- just DM.
Mohammed Mohammed Nasser Kamel Abu Huweidi (ID#: 803434364, age 29), listed as a journalist for the privately owned al-Istiqlal news outlet, was a commander in PIJ’s Central Military Media Unit. Abu Huweidi was killed in a December 2023 airstrike. Image
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Read 11 tweets
Mar 17
On May 28, 2025, an airstrike on a car in Gaza City killed 4 people, including two employees of the Turkish humanitarian NGO IHH (one the program director) and a journalist for the PIJ-affiliated al-Quds Today TV. New information indicates at least 3/4 were PIJ militants.🧵 Image
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Three of those killed—IHH program director Mohammed Jamal al-Mubayyad (45), Ahmed Matar Bustan (ID#: 404600363, age 26), and IHH employee Ishaq Assad al-Tayf (ID#: 409057130, age 21)—were mourned in the days after the strike by a PIJ channel dedicated to the memory of slain PIJ leader Khalil al-Bahtini (in 2023), but without explicit language naming them as militants.Image


However, today another PIJ-affiliated obituary channel published images explicitly identifying al-Mubayyad as a PIJ commander and Bustan as a fighter. Al-Tayf's face, at right, is blurred in this version of the photo (but not in the previous tweet). al-Mubayyad has yet to be added to the Hamas-run Health Ministry's list of the dead, while all others killed in this strike are on it.Image
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Read 7 tweets

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