Gabriel Epstein Profile picture
Senior Policy Associate @IsraelPolicy4m. Former Research Assistant @WashInstitute. Graduate @SAISHopkins.
Mar 26 12 tweets 9 min read
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
Mar 22 12 tweets 8 min read
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:
Mar 20 11 tweets 9 min read
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.
Mar 17 7 tweets 5 min read
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


Mar 4 6 tweets 4 min read
While the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict dominated the news, PIJ released another list of 20 commanders killed during the war in Gaza on March 1. They include the husband of a prominent journalist and an ICU nurse, and 17/20 can be found on the Gaza Health Ministry list. 🧵 Image
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Munir Attia Darwish al-Adini (ID#: 800137549, age 40) was a commander in PIJ’s military manufacturing unit. Both he and his wife, prominent Palestinian journalist Wafa Ali Abdrabbo al-Adini (ID#: 801342437, age 38), along with two of their children, were killed in a September 2024 airstrike. This thread has more details:

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Feb 26 9 tweets 6 min read
Today, Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced 20 more commanders killed in Gaza, including journalists, the head of therapeutic nutrition at Nasser Hospital, and other figures. A few highlights below and a summary: 🧵 Image Ayman Suleiman Abu Tayr (ID#: 801367459, age 39), a commander in PIJ’s Central Operations Unit, was also a licensed nurse and the head of Nasser Hospital’s Therapeutic Nutrition Unit. He was killed in a June 2025 airstrike. Image
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Feb 24 11 tweets 9 min read
UPDATING THREAD: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has released a sizable list of high-ranking commanders killed during the war, particularly second-in-commands of many key units. Notable IDs, including journalists, doctors, and others below.🧵 Image
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Mahdi Hassan Mohammed al-Mamlouk (ID#: 801389321, 38) was the deputy head of PIJ's central communications unit as well as a broadcast engineer for PIJ's satellite channel, al-Quds al-Youm TV. He was killed in a Nov 2024 airstrike, and is listed by the CPJ and IFJ (though not the Hamas-run GMO) as a journalist.Image
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Feb 24 6 tweets 5 min read
Mohammed Akram Abdullah al-Kafarna (40), head of the Palestinian Nursing Association and nursing supervisor at Kamal al-Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, was a Hamas militant killed in the Beit Hanoun area in September 2025. 🧵 Image
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al-Kafarna's death was announced in late September 2025 by a major Hamas media Telegram channel, among a set of 13 militants killed the north Gaza neighborhood following heavy IDF operations. His picture appears at 00:34 in the video below. Image

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Feb 19 26 tweets 13 min read
A new Gaza death toll list provided to the Israeli newspaper @haaretz by the Hamas-run Gaza MOH has been released (the 13th iteration), containing 68,820 non-duplicate entries and covering up to November 10, 2025. Very long analysis of data quality, demographics, and unknowns: Image Like all published MOH lists, the November list does not distinguish between civilians and combatants and attributes all listed deaths uniformly to Israeli action. Nor does it include dates of death (no list has) or collection methodology (some earlier iterations did).
Feb 14 5 tweets 3 min read
New posts on popular Gazan militant obituary channels show that the police director of the Kerem Shalom crossing, Bassem Salah Mohammed Ghubn, was a longstanding member of Hamas and a lifelong friend of Alaa al-Hadidi, supply chief in Hamas' manufacturing headquarters. 🧵 Image Ghubn and Hadidi are described as lifelong friends who both joined the "military wing" of Hamas in the Second Intifada, then took on command roles in different parts of the group. Ghubn later became a police colonel and was appointed head of the Kerem Shalom crossing. Image
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Feb 10 4 tweets 2 min read
Major find by @MiddleEastBuka -- identifying Ibrahim Zaanin as the terrorist who murdered Sapir Bilmes (24) and Karin Vernikov (22) outside Kibbutz Alumim on October 7. Zaanin was killed in an airstrike yesterday in Gaza City (details below).
Feb 10 4 tweets 2 min read
An unusually detailed story of a child combatant in Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades — Yamin Ahmed Fawzi Thabet (17, ID#: 424685626) — killed in November 2024 illustrates Hamas’ major recruitment drive throughout the war, especially for young men and teens.🧵 Image
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Thabet joined the Qassam Brigades in June 2024, soon after turning 17, in response to a major recruitment drive. His roles involved navigation, placing IEDs in houses and on roads, and attacking collaborators. He was killed by artillery fire 5 months after joining Hamas. Image
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Feb 9 6 tweets 4 min read
Today's strike on an apartment in the al-Nasr neighborhood of west Gaza City killed at least two militants from Hamas' Beit Hanoun Battalion: Ibrahim Farid Shaaban Zaanin and Ahmed Kamal Swailam, who are described as "heroic mujahideen". 🧵 Image
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Ibrahim Zaanin is described repeatedly as a mujahid and a "hunter of vehicles", making it likely he was part of an RPG/anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) team. Image
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Feb 8 10 tweets 6 min read
This claim, which is about a new Hamas-run Ministry of Social Development program is untrue on multiple levels -- on figures, characterization, and comparison with the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry's death toll. Short 🧵 to explain: Last week, the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Development (MOSD) announced a program ("We are your support") to provide NIS 500 (~$160) to widows of Gazans killed in the war. Funding for this program is allegedly money confiscated from merchants for "criminal" activities post-ceasefire.Image
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Feb 3 4 tweets 4 min read
Mahmoud Essam Ibrahim Wadi, killed in an Israeli drone strike on December 2, 2025, was mourned as a Gazan photojournalist and drone photographer for several local and international outlets. However, pictures of his gravestone identify him as a "mujahid" (fighter). 🧵 Image
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Wadi appears on three major lists of media workers killed in Gaza: the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Hamas-run Government Media Office. Video from his funeral also shows a press jacket placed over his body. Image
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Jan 28 16 tweets 6 min read
The picture on the PA's reported "pay-to-slay" reform is more confusing than the article indicates. Without an actual U.S. audit to fully assess the new PNEEI need-based aid system, ensure the old system is completely gone, and prevent workarounds, there won't be any clarity. 🧵 The PA published the decree nominally cancelling pay-to-slay in Feb 2025 and invited the U.S. to audit in April, but laws to restructure the new body (PNEEI) weren't passed until July, and the new need-based beneficiary list wasn't set until even later. israelpolicyforum.org/making-the-pa-…
Jan 27 9 tweets 5 min read
An IDF strike in the Sudaniya area of northern Gaza on July 28, 2025, was initially reported to have killed 10 people conducting “aid security”. The five people ID’d at the time of the strike: a DFLP commander and four al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades operatives. Details in 🧵: Image
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Mohammed Hassan Nimr Abu Ali (ID#: 800405425, age 40) was part of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Omar al-Qassam Brigades command in west Gaza City. His death was announced by the group almost immediately.
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Jan 9 15 tweets 6 min read
A new iteration of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s casualties dashboard has been published, updated through the end of 2025. Short analysis 🧵: Image The current dashboard reports 71,400 deaths, while the November 10 iteration reported 68,832, with demographics in the table below (L). Of the 2,568 added deaths (many added via family reports from earlier in the war), roughly 54% are men 18-59 (R). Image
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Jan 2 4 tweets 4 min read
A Military Medical Services Nurse in Gaza and a Hamas fighter: Tariq Jamal Jamil Abu al-Atta (ID #: 800599920) was killed in a Mar 2024 airstrike along with his wife and children. While media/NGOs ID'd him as a civilian, multiple martyr's channels identify him as a combatant. 🧵 Image
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Abu al-Atta is listed in the Healthcare Workers Watch list of medical workers killed in Gaza (155th under nurses) and ID'd by the Institute for Palestine Studies as a Military Medical Services Nurse at a Deir al-Balah clinic. healthcareworkerswatch.org/wp-content/upl…Image
Dec 23, 2025 7 tweets 4 min read
A 12-year old "Little Mujahideen" for Gaza's Mujahideen Brigades: Suhaib Talal Nafiz al-Jundia (ID#: 432315653). Killed in December 2024, he was identified today both by his father and on a popular militant obituary page. Image In pictures posted by two of his father's Facebook accounts, al-Jundia appears with weapons and a vest bearing the Mujahideen Brigades logo (see the BBC image for comparison). The Brigades are part of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, the 4th-largest terror group in Gaza. Image
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Nov 11, 2025 16 tweets 5 min read
One month since the Gaza ceasefire went into effect, the death toll reported by the Hamas-run Health Ministry has increased by 1,968 to 69,182. What accounts for the increase, and what has the past month revealed about the death toll? 5 main takeaways: 1. Little of the post-ceasefire increase in the death toll comes from new deaths (13%). Instead, it comes from the bulk addition of deaths reported to the Health Ministry by families (61%), through a form open since Jan 2024, and recovery of previously unreported bodies (26%). Image
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