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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 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.
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Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians
US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” before correcting himself.
While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu’s name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.”
The kingdom said it valued “brotherly” states’ rejection of Netanyahu’s remarks.
“This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” it said.
Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday’s shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
Arab states have roundly condemned Trump’s comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.
Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss what it described as “serious” developments for Palestinians, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.
The summit comes amid regional and global condemnation of US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
The post Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home
Relatives hug a released Thai hostage, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and held in Gaza, as the hostages arrive in Thailand following their release, at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Samut Prakan, Thailand, February 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
When Surasak Rumnao, 31, left his home in Thailand’s rural Udon Thani province three years ago to go across the world to the southern Israeli town of Yesha for agriculture work, his family never imagined they would lose touch with him for over a year when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in October 2023.
He and four others were reunited with their families this weekend after their release from captivity in Gaza.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists abducted more than 250 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, in their October 2023 attack on Israel.
During the attack, Hamas terrorists killed more than 40 Thais and kidnapped 31 Thai laborers, some of whom died in captivity, according to the Thai government. Later that year, the first group of Thai hostages was returned.
Surasak’s mother, Khammee Rumnao, was relieved that her son was not mistreated and has returned to his home, about 620 km(385 miles) northeast of the capital, Bangkok.
“He mainly got to eat bread, he was looked after well and was fed all three meals (each day). He got to shower, he was looked after well,” Khammee said, and that he ate whatever his captors had.
Her son does not plan to go back and wants to use the knowledge he gained in his agricultural work in Israel at their home, she said.
His grandparents and other relatives came to their home to welcome him home.
His stepfather, Janda Prachanan, was elated.
“I couldn’t find the words to describe how happy I am, that my son is safe and finally home,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the other returnees, dressed in winter jackets, were met with tears of joy from their families who were waiting for their arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
“We are all deeply touched to come back to our birthplace … to be standing here,” said Pongsak Thaenna, one of the returnees said. “I don’t know what else to say, we are all truly thankful.”
Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who met the hostages in Israel after their release last week, expressed relief.
“This is emotional … to come back to the embrace of their families,” he said. “We never gave up and this was the fruit of that.”
Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country. Nearly 9,000 Thais were repatriated following the October 7 attacks.
The workers primarily come from Thailand’s northeastern region, an area comprising villages and farming communities that is among the poorest in the country.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said a Thai national is still believed to be held captive by Hamas.
“We still have hope and continue to work to bring them back,” Maris said, adding that this includes the bodies of two deceased Thai nationals.
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