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It’s Not ‘Israel’s War in Gaza’ — It’s the Israel-Hamas War; But the Media Is Trying to Harm Israel

A youth march calling for the return of the kidnapped in Gaza. Organized by the youth of Kfar Aza. December 27, 2023.

What should we call the current conflict between Israel and Hamas?

In a war between two nations, a hyphenated noun phrase, like the “Spanish-American War” and the “Iran-Iraq War,” is the way to go.

Even though the terrorist organization that runs the Gaza Strip is not a nation state, logic dictates that we should call the conflict now approaching the one-year mark either the “Hamas-Israel War” or the “Israel-Hamas War.”

But the world’s media has taken sides, so instead of logical, objective language, journalists and editors have concocted a way to indemnify Hamas and blame Israel for the conflict by calling it “Israel’s war in Gaza.” It is a disingenuous phrase, and it is ubiquitous.

The most virulent of Israel-hating media outlets take it a step further with the term “Israel’s war on Gaza” (The Middle East EyeThe Electronic Intifada, and Al-Jazeera), but “Israel’s war in Gaza” is the term of choice among the establishment left-wing media.

CNN, naturally, is always ready with “The latest on Israel’s war in Gaza,” or a warning about how “Israel’s war in Gaza has exposed a deepening global divide.”

The Associated Press in January published its “Key takeaways from the U.N. court’s ruling on Israel’s war in Gaza.”

The New York Times might avoid the term in its headlines, but from its mainstay writers like Thomas Friedman to its daily briefings, it is very comfortable with the phrase.

April was a busy month for the phrase as, ABC explained how “Israel’s war in Gaza became a political flashpoint,” PBS declared that “Israel’s War in Gaza becomes a major U.S. election issue,” and NPR showed “How 6 months of Israel’s War in Gaza have upended the Middle East.”

Also in April, no less than seven scribes at USA Today co-authored a story titled “30,000-plus lives lost: Visualizing the death and destruction of Israel’s war in Gaza,” while Axios announced that the “Tide turned sharply against Israel’s war in Gaza.”

In May, Reuters wrote about a “Nurse in New York fired after calling Israel’s war in Gaza ‘genocide’” and NBC tweeted a dire warning that, “Students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza have faced disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion. They may also face financial setbacks, experts say.”

In June, Vox looked to the future with “the next phase of Israel’s war in Gaza, explained.”

In August, a Washington Post headline screamed: “More than 40,000 killed in Israel’s War in Gaza, Health Ministry Says,” noting in the article that “the 40,000 figure is probably an undercount.”

Currently, The Washington Post seems to be in league with The Electronic Intifada, as it has begun labeling its war coverage the “Israel-Gaza War,” as though Israel is at war with the entire Gaza Strip rather than Hamas, ignoring the facts that Israel has established safe-travel zones, provided relief, and even sent texts to Gazans telling them that to avoid areas where attacks against a Hamas command centers will occur.

British outlets also prefer the term “Israel’s war in Gaza.”

The BBC began an article in December with the sentence, “Israel’s war in Gaza may take ‘more than several months,’” and The Guardian frantically warned in January that “Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe.”

Politico gave Elizabeth Warren a platform to bloviate with the headline, “Elizabeth Warren says she believes Israel’s war in Gaza will legally be considered a genocide.”

Popular specialist outlets prefer the term too.

At Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Shtayyeh pontificates on “The Best Way to End Israel’s War in Gaza,” while the Atlantic Council ominously warns that “For Israel’s war in Gaza, vengeance is a downward spiral.”

Ten days after the Hamas attack, The Economist published a war news briefing titled “Mapping Israel’s War in Gaza.” In November 2023, it treated its readers to a piece ominously titled “The pace of Israel’s war in Gaza far exceeds previous conflicts.”

Israel’s most popular left-leaning outlet, Haaretz, ran an article in March with the title “Even Jews Who Oppose Israel’s War in Gaza Can’t Escape It.”

Niche outlets also get in on the action.

The scientists at Scientific American worry that “Israel’s War in Gaza Is Creating Enormous Hidden Health Problems.”

In February, The New Statesman pondered “The fractured reality of Israel’s war in Gaza.”

The Coalition for Women in Journalism ran a piece in August titled, “I have been forcibly displaced 12 times by Israel’s war in Gaza.”

On the far left, Slate wonders, “Is Israel’s War in Gaza Strengthening Hamas?” while the loonies at Mother Jones worry about “The Staggering Carbon Footprint of Israel’s War in Gaza.”

If the phrasing of “Israel’s war in Gaza” is familiar, it should be.

The nearly identical term has seeped into the media culture since February 2022 when “Russia’s war in Ukraine” became the term universally used to describe what might otherwise be called the “Russia-Ukraine War.”

Virtually every outlet that uses the term “Israel’s war in Gaza” also uses the term “Russia’s war in Ukraine,” including Reuters, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, New York TimesUSA TodayCNNNBCMSNBCABCPBS,NPRVoxAxios, and Politico.

The British media too (the BBC, and The Guardian) call it “Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

The term is also favored by the popular specialist outlets, including Foreign AffairsAtlantic Council, and The Economist.

And niche outlets also use the term, including Scientific AmericanNatureSlateMother JonesThe New Statesman, and the Coalition for Women in Journalism.

The parallels here are unavoidable and wrong. The term “Russia’s war in Ukraine” fits because Russia invaded Ukraine. It was the belligerent party that launched a war of aggression, largely against civilians.

The term “Israel’s war in Gaza,” however, does not fit because it implies that Israel rather than Hamas is the belligerent party, when in fact Hamas broke a ceasefire with Israel on October 7, 2023.

Hamas was the belligerent party that launched a war of aggression, largely against civilians.

For most of the media, the phrasing is meant to be a subtle, almost subliminal way to blame Israel for the war.

Objectively, the media should use the term Robert Satloff uses at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy uses: the “Hamas-Israel War.”

Better yet, “Israel’s effort to destroy the terrorist organization Hamas.”

Better still, though a bit wordy, “Israel’s attempt to free Israeli and American hostages from the terrorist organization Hamas.”

Israel is winning on the physical battlefield where terrorist cowards lurk in subterranean Gaza abusing their captives, but it is losing on the verbal battlefield where keyboard cowards lurk in newsrooms and dingy cubicles, abusing their readers with Newspeak blather and agitprop bias.

Chief Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) Political Correspondent A.J. Caschetta is a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum where he is also a Milstein fellow. A version of this article was originally published by IPT.

The post It’s Not ‘Israel’s War in Gaza’ — It’s the Israel-Hamas War; But the Media Is Trying to Harm Israel 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.

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