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Coverage of Ceasefire Rejection Paints Israel as Aggressor, Whitewashes Hamas
The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Oct. 12, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
More than 100 days into the war between Israel and Hamas, media outlets have apparently forgotten who started it.
The headlines this week on Israel’s rejection of a Hamas proposal for a ceasefire made the terror group look like an anti-war movement, while the Jewish state has been painted as the aggressor that wishes to prolong everyone’s suffering.
This impression was created by news outlets that have taken at face value Hamas’ suggestion of a ceasefire or its justification for the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war, while completely ignoring the group’s genocidal ideology and its leaders’ statements.
Wire Services Ignore Hamas’ Ideology
Reuters, AP, and AFP led with the Israeli refusal to end the war. Their reports appeared to be merely informative:
Reuters quoted senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
AP produced a video package showing a statement by Netanyahu, along with some background and details.
AFP published a short report, and also referred to a Hamas document distributed over the weekend “justifying its October 7 attack on Israel.”
But none of these agencies — that are responsible for distributing information to thousands of media outlets worldwide — mentioned that Hamas is ideologically committed to a permanent war against Israel, not a ceasefire.
These wire services should have included, at the very least, some background explaining that Hamas is sworn to the destruction of Israel and that its founding charter calls for holy war against the Jewish state.
Without this context, Hamas is presented as a legitimate political actor making legitimate claims.
Echoing Hamas Propaganda
The coverage of the Hamas document mentioned above is another example of how media sanitized the terror group while making Israel look like a warmonger.
The professionally produced document is an 18-page English pamphlet titled “Our Narrative … Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” produced by the Hamas media office with an eye to a Western audience.
It includes virulent anti-Israeli propaganda and denials of the atrocities of October 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 people inside Israel, brutalized innocent civilians, and took around 240 hostages into Gaza.
The document justifies the monstrosity of this attack with claims like:
The battle of the Palestinian people against occupation and colonialism did not start on Oct. 7, but started 105 years ago, including 30 years of British colonialism and 75 years of Zionist occupation.
Most mainstream media outlets rightly ignored the document.
But, sadly, the AFP was not alone in wrapping it into their report on Israel’s rejection of a ceasefire.
Voice of America, in a piece titled “Netanyahu Rejects Hamas’ Call to End Gaza War,” echoed exactly what Hamas wanted the media to disseminate:
Hamas on Sunday defended its October 7 terror attack on Israel but admitted to “faults” and called for an end to “Israeli aggression” in Gaza.
In its first public report on the attack that began the war, the militant group said it was a “necessary step” against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and a way to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Giving any kind of platform to Hamas’ “first public report” on its October 7 attack is not only bad journalism, but also an appalling normalization of evil.
Ignoring Hamas’ Arabic Rhetoric
Meanwhile, no media outlet reported that almost in parallel to the distribution of the deceiving talking points in English, Hamas has conveyed completely different messages in Arabic.
In early January, Hamas leader abroad Khaled Meshaal publicly said on a Kuwaiti podcast that “October 7 proved that liberating Palestine from the river to the sea is realistic and has already begun.”
In the same interview, Meshaal also categorically rejected a two-state solution and stated that any Palestinian state is going to be a replacement for Israel.
Yet media that criticized Israel for rejecting a ceasefire also bashed Israeli politicians for coming out against a two-state solution, without mentioning that Hamas publicly opposes it.
Aren’t Meshaal’s statements worth highlighting? Were they deliberately ignored?
Why were global headlines focused on Israel’s rejection of a ceasefire but not on Hamas’ reiteration of its unwavering commitment to war?
Why do journalists seem to lose their sense of hearing when terrorists speak Arabic?
These questions deserve answers because news outlets employ Arabic-speaking producers responsible for monitoring Middle East channels and social media.
But whether media omitted necessary background on Hamas’ genocidal ideology, echoed its propaganda, or ignored what its leaders have said, the result is the same: The continuation of the war has been blamed on the Israelis, not on the bloodthirsty murderers who are devoted to it.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Coverage of Ceasefire Rejection Paints Israel as Aggressor, Whitewashes Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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