After initially appearing to walk back the claim the pair were with a terror operative, the IDF said its intelligence confirmed both were members of Gaza-based terror groups and were “actively involved in attacks against IDF forces.”

It said Thuria was identified by a document found by troops in Gaza as a member of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, serving as a deputy squad commander in one of the battalions.

Dahdouh, according to the IDF, was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It said documents recovered by troops in Gaza reveal he served in Islamic Jihad’s electronic engineering unit, and previously was a deputy commander in the Zeitoun Battalion’s rocket force.

[The IDF has posted the documentation on Twitter/X. Bear in mind that the IDF is a military at war, and that while it’s more transparent than most, a claim like this is open to interpretation too. I’d be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, based not just on the documentation but also because self-identified journalists employed by the AP and other Western agencies also turned out to be participants in the October 7 massacres and other Hamas/PIJ ops. — Ed]