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CNN Equates IDF With Dishonest Terror Group
IDF soldiers traveling in a military vehicle along the Israel-Gaza border. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen
Social media has been buzzing with rumors about journalist and former Hamas Labor Ministry Spokesperson Abdallah Aljamal’s role in holding three of the since-rescued hostages — Almog Meir-Jan, Shlomi Ziv, and Andrey Kozlov — in his family’s apartment in Gaza.
Sure enough, several media outlets have spun this story to fit their narrative — including CNN. It published a piece last week titled “Israel Alleges Journalist Held Hostages in Gaza, Without Providing Evidence.”
Yet when compared to how CNN covers Gaza’s side of the story, the contrast is night and day.
If you look really closely, you’ll notice a difference in how CNN treats claims from Israel and from Hamas.
Can you spot it? pic.twitter.com/wlwXrb919c
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 10, 2024
The article suggests that Israel makes claims with zero accountability: “Three hostages rescued during a deadly Israeli military operation on the Nuseirat camp,” it writes, “were held captive by a journalist …” saying that the IDF “alleged” this information, “without providing evidence to support their claim.”
In the case of Israel, a military must provide “evidence” of its intelligence to the public, whereas the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry does not have to provide evidence of their numbers or how their civilians were killed.
Perhaps this discrepancy is driven by the fact that Aljamal was a journalist, or by the fact that he was Palestinian, or maybe it is because the IDF is involved. It could be all three.
However, calling CNN’s work unbiased journalism is incorrect. If the IDF has intelligence about where hostages are located, one could only assume that intelligence would indicate who is holding the hostages.
As it turns out, Aljamal was a past contributor for Al Jazeera, and regularly wrote for the Palestine Chronicle – a US-registered non-profit organization based in Washington State — which has links with both Hamas and the Islamic regime of Iran, according to an investigation done by the Washington Free Beacon.
According to the Palestine Chronicle, Aljamal’s articles were consistently about the Gaza humanitarian situation. Meanwhile, he had been holding Israeli civilian hostages for months in his family home, and barely feeding them.
WILD: Was a journalist working for the US-based 501(c)(3) organization, The Palestine Chronicle, helping hold Israelis hostage in Gaza? pic.twitter.com/UhZLjsgYf6
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 9, 2024
The Palestine Chronicle acknowledged Aljamal on its website as a regular “contributor,” unlike Al Jazeera, which all but denied any connection to him. However, as can be seen below, there still may have been a diminishing of his role at the paper.
Abdullah Al-Jamal was not a “freelance contributor” for the Palestine Chronicle. As the outlet itself has repeatedly stated, he was in fact its “correspondent in Gaza.”
They clearly changed the bio to try and avoid legal repercussions pic.twitter.com/i6cu22ZXTE
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 10, 2024
Regardless of Aljamal’s journalistic career, the IDF gathered intelligence proving that he was holding Israeli hostages in his home. Does that mean he is untouchable? It is also impossible to ignore the fact that he was linked to Hamas, since he was the former spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Labor Ministry. Whatever their “evidence” may be, the IDF hasn’t shared it. But must they?
If a military, any military, gathers intelligence and carries out an operation based on that intelligence, it is completely legitimate — especially at first — to keep evidence of such intelligence under wraps. This is certainly true for sensitive intelligence such as this. There are still approximately 120 hostages, alive and dead, being held captive by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. If the IDF wishes to conduct more rescue operations, it must be assumed that keeping intelligence secret is necessary.
CNN can maintain that the IDF needs to provide “evidence” to “claims” about secret intelligence. But they are wrong to equate the IDF with a dishonest, savage terror organization, and to portray Hamas as righteous freedom-fighting saints.
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 CNN Equates IDF With Dishonest Terror Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.