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Many Pro-Hamas ‘Sources’ Used by International Media Outlets Support Terror and Hate Jews

The BBC logo is seen at the entrance at Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London. Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA.

The Associated Press was recently exposed due to its long-running usage of the unreliable eyewitness accounts of the director of Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital, who was unmasked as an associate of recently-eliminated Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh.

Dr. Fadel Naim, whose Facebook page is awash with violent and antisemitic rhetoric, was also revealed as a source of information about the Hamas-Israel conflict that was later found to be false.

The issue of untrustworthy sources, however, extends beyond the Associated Press and its reliance on Naim. We can now reveal that numerous other leading news organizations have also published information from questionable sources in Gaza.

These individuals, often cloaked in professional titles that lend them a veneer of credibility, have been found, like Naim, to support violent terror activities.

The “Journalist” Documenting Gaza

In addition to the Gaza freelance journalists who HonestReporting revealed had invaded Israel on October 7 and were paid by news outlets for the documentation of their crimes, other self-described journalists in Gaza have played a key role in providing eyewitness accounts to high-profile news outlets.

One such figure is Plestia Alaqad, an “aspiring journalist” who has been featured in various media outlets, including The Washington Post and recent opinion editorials in The Guardian. Despite her portrayal as a credible source, Alaqad and others like her have been found to disseminate misleading information that aligns with Hamas propaganda.

In one recent Guardian piece, Alaqad repeated the false claim that a Lancet “study” stated that up to 186,000 people could be dead in Gaza — a figure that actually came from a letter to the journal and was discredited.

Alaqad has also been known to spread Hamas propaganda and anti-Israel libels, including claims of genocide and the false assertion that went unchallenged during a BBC interview that Israel killed 1,000 Palestinians in a “massacre” at the Al-Ahli Hospital — an explosion that was later determined to have been caused by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.

Yet, this is the individual that reputable media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Guardian, and the BBC, turn to for “expert” testimony.

They present her as a journalist, lending her a veneer of respectability, while ignoring the fact that she consistently promotes narratives that are not just misleading, but dangerous.

In a similar case, BBC Verify, the team responsible for fact-checking news events, relied on the testimony of Mahmoud Awadeyah, a journalist reportedly affiliated with an Iranian news outlet linked to the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. Awadeyah, who has openly praised terrorist attacks against Israelis, was cited by the BBC to support claims that Israel deliberately targeted civilians during an aid convoy incident in Gaza.

Numerous news outlets have not only relied on questionable figures like Plestia Alaqad, but have also turned to other so-called eyewitnesses whose credibility has been undermined by disturbing online postings.

Dunia Abu Rahma, a 22-year-old architecture student from Gaza, for example, appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper and NBC News, where she painted a heart-wrenching picture of life in Gaza, emphasizing her desire for peace and a normal life.

“All I want them to know is that there are civilians, people who wish to live a normal, peaceful life,” she told Anderson Cooper, framing herself as an innocent bystander hoping for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.

However, Abu Rahma’s social media history tells a very different story.

HonestReporting uncovered numerous posts where she celebrated the October 7 Hamas massacre, glorified violence against Israelis, and expressed antisemitic views. On the day of the October 7 attack, she tweeted with apparent glee about the invasion of Israeli communities, even expressing a desire to participate in the violence. In another instance, she lamented that Adolf Hitler did not finish his Holocaust of Jews.

HonestReporting has also found examples of media outlets relying on individuals from charitable organizations or activists whose online presence reveals a pattern of promoting extremist views or spreading misinformation.

The BBC cited a central Gaza-based “advocacy officer” for a UK charity, Tarneen Hammad, in a recent piece that cited her determination to work for “justice and peace”:

Yet, shortly after the October 7 attack, Hammad was tweeting support for the horrific massacre.

Former Amnesty activist Hind Khoudary was used by the BBC, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and The Independent, as a source in the Strip before she was outed as a Hamas collaborator whose information led to the arrest of Palestinian peace activists.

In 2020, she informed on Gazans who participated in a peace dialogue with Israelis, resulting in their imprisonment on charges of “treason”:

The international media’s reliance on testimony from eyewitnesses in Gaza is expected. But it is unacceptable to present those who, in some cases, have a history of disseminating violent, pro-terror rhetoric, as credible journalists, medical workers, activists, or bystanders .
These sources, with their troubling views, are shaping Western audiences’ understanding of the conflict. Media outlets are failing in their most basic duty to perform due diligence by not properly vetting the individuals they rely on for information.

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 Many Pro-Hamas ‘Sources’ Used by International Media Outlets Support Terror and Hate Jews 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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