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NBC Report on West Bank Tensions Conceals Palestinian Violence
Illustrative: Israeli soldiers search a Palestinian’s car at a checkpoint in Hebron in the West Bank, August 22, 2023. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
Only by ignoring the last two and a half years of growing Palestinian violence in the West Bank, could any observer refer to that arena as a “new front” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet in his Jan. 12 NBC Nightly News broadcast about increasing West Bank violence, Richard Engel did just that [beginning at approximately 12 minutes into the video below]:
Already at war with Hamas in Gaza and under threat from Iranian-backed militias across the Middle East, Israel may face a new front closer to home. Since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7th, Israeli troops have intensified counter-terrorism raids in the Palestinian West Bank where locals accuse Israel of heavy-handed tactics.
Engel’s subsequent reporting is heavy on Palestinian accusations against Israel, but short on fact-checking and professional coverage of Palestinian violence.
Thus, the NBC correspondent continues:
We recently traveled to the Nur al-Shams refugee camp. Suleiman al-Zuheiri, a community leader, took me to a building where he says, Israeli troops arrested a man accused of making bombs and then blew up three apartment.
[Al-Zuheiri states:] “This is what we call collective punishment for the people down the street.”
Engel neglects to report that during the Dec. 26 arrest in the Tulkarem refugee camp, the Israeli military found dozens of improvised explosive devises and rockets in that same building. The Israeli military reported:
Additionally, during searches of the building, an explosives lab containing dozens of improvised explosives ready for use and explosives materials were found and destroyed.
In addition, more than 30 weapons were discovered in the building, improvised rockets and additional arms which were confiscated. The suspect who was found in the building in which the lab was located was arrested. [Translation by CAMERA]
Did NBC probe the possibility that secondary explosions due to the weapons cache — as opposed to “collective punishment” — were responsible for destroying three apartments? In any event, what’s clear is that Engel concealed the existence of the weapons cache and explosives lab from viewers.
He likewise expunged evidence of Palestinian violence in his account of the Oct. 19 Israeli military raid in Nur al-Shams, selectively reporting that Sarah Mahmeed:
showed me the spot where she filmed her 16-year-old brother as he was shot by Israeli soldiers during another raid. Her cell phone video is difficult to watch. When her brother, on the left, looks around a corner, he’s shot dead. When her father tries to recover the body, he’s shot too. Seriously injured. He manages to limp back home. “Our blood is cheap for them. They’re killing us every day,” Sarah says. The Israeli military said its troops fired on terrorists during an operation in the area. At the time we attended the funeral for Palestinians who’ve just been killed during another Israeli operation.
Engel reports Taha Mahmeed‘s identity as a terrorist as an unverifiable, with the sister and the Israeli military providing conflicting claims. But Hamas itself confirmed the Israel Defense Forces’ information, acknowledging that the younger Mahmeed was one of “its martyrs” killed “during confrontations” with the IDF.
Here is an English translation of the poster [provided by CAMERA Arabic}:
To the masses of our mighty Palestinian people and the free people of our Arab and Islamic nation, Hamas — the Islamic Resistance Movement — mourns its martyred hero Taha Mahameed who ascended [to heaven] at dawn of Thursday, 19.10.23 by the occupation’s fire in the Nur Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarm during the clashes of the Al-Aqsa Flood campaign.
NBC’s report gives no indication that Mahmeed belonged to Hamas, a designated terror organization, which just that month had committed the most barbaric massacre of Jews targeting thousands, inflicting unparalleled torture and horrific rapes, in recent history.
In short, for a broadcast titled “Violence escalating in the West Bank,” NBC’s Richard Engel does a remarkable job concealing Palestinian violence in the West Bank.
Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website. This article was written with research by CAMERA Arabic.
The post NBC Report on West Bank Tensions Conceals Palestinian Violence 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.