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Media Outlets Stand By Reporters Who Cooperated With Hamas
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar looks on as Palestinian Hamas supporters take part in an anti-Israel rally over tension in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, in Gaza City, Oct. 1, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
An AFP staff photographer aimed to appease Hamas by speaking to a “Day of Loyalty to the Palestinian Journalists” event organized by the terrorist group, the news agency’s global news director Phil Chetwynd told HonestReporting last week.
Journalists working for foreign media outlets in Gaza have participated in Hamas’ annual loyalty event hosted by the terror group’s Government Media Office, with the stated aim of aligning the media with Hamas’ agenda, an HonestReporting investigation revealed.
Our report unveiled the disturbing relationship between Gaza’s rulers and the journalists tasked with covering them, calling into question their objectivity and the ethical standards of their media outlets — the Associated Press, AFP, Reuters, and The New York Times.
“Mohammed Abed is an award-winning staff photographer at AFP who has always worked according to the agency’s published rules and ethics charters,” Chetwynd said.
“He did not attend the ‘Day of Loyalty to the Palestinian Journalists’ event in 2021. However, he agreed to say a few words in a video, as the Hamas-controlled government press office effectively regulated media work in Gaza. In the video, he thanked the government press office in general terms for their support of journalists,” the AFP global news director continued.
“We have journalists who work in many difficult locations around the world and in all these locations it is incumbent on them to maintain cordial and professional relations with the organization that controls the territory in which they work. It would be dishonest try to twist these anodyne words into a pledge of support for Hamas.”
While the AP and New York Times did not respond to a request for comment, a Reuters spokesperson defended the news agency’s journalists who participated in the Hamas event.
“We stand by our coverage of Gaza and our team, who operate within the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles,” the spokesman said.
However, those principles appeared to forbid joining an event organized by a terrorist organization to encourage loyalty.
“Customers across the world depend on us to provide them with reliable and objective news and information,” the Principles state. “This means that we have a special need to safeguard our independence and integrity and avoid any bias which may stem from control by specific individuals or interests.”
Here are the highlights of our expose:
AP’s staff photographer Hatem Moussa delivered a video address at Hamas’ 2014 Loyalty Day event. It appears that his message was displayed on the same screen as the message of Abu Ubaida, the terror group’s military wing spokesperson. It was also published in propaganda style by Hamas’ official news agency.
AP’s photographer Fatima Shbair and AFP’s Mohammed Baba spoke in a promotional video for the 2021 event, in which they were also honored by Hamas for receiving international awards.
Two journalists were honored in the 2021 event as Hamas media office’s “work partners:” Yasser Qudih, who infiltrated into Israel on October 7 and recently won the Pulitzer Prize with Reuters’ photography staff, and The New York Times’s photographer Samar abu Elouf, who recently won the prestigious Polk Award.
At the 2022 event, two journalists were honored for serving on the judging panel of the Government Media Office’s media contest: Reuters cameraman Fadi Shanaa and AP’s Adel Hana, whom we exposed for teaching Hamas’ media courses.
Other journalists were honored in 2021 and 2022 for winning international awards. These included Reuters photographer Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, who recently also won the 2024 Staff Photography Pulitzer, and AP photographer Khalil Hamra.
In 2022, the terror group also gave monetary awards to two journalists who were exposed by HonestReporting for their infiltration into Israel and their links to Hamas — Hassan Eslaiah, who worked for AP and CNN, and Ashraf Amra who worked for Reuters.
HonestReporting is 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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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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