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News Video of ‘Possible Israeli War Crime’ Raises Disturbing Questions

FILE PHOTO: A militant fires a rocket launcher during what Hamas says is an engagement with its fighters during a battle with Israeli forces amid Israel’s ground offensive in a location given as near Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in this still image taken from video released November 17, 2023. Hamas Military Wing/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

When ITV News speculated this week about whether Israel had committed “a possible war crime” during a tragic incident in which a man was shot in Gaza, it had a duty to present the accusation with ironclad evidence.

However, the video it aired — allegedly showing the lethal targeting of a Palestinian civilian walking among a group of people waving a white flag — raises serious questions that the UK news outlet should have asked in advance.

And after the Israeli army denied the report and criticized ITV News for broadcasting what it dismissed as an “extension of Hamas’s propaganda effort,” serious alarm bells should have been ringing over at ITV News about the circumstances surrounding the incident the footage purportedly showed.

According to ITV News, the video was filmed by Mohammed Abu Safia, a Gazan cameraman who works for the network.

The footage was presented without any disclosure telling viewers that it had been edited.

Furthermore, at least one of the video cuts seems to occur at the critical moment when gunshots are heard and people can be seen running away. The editing cut is barely perceptible, and the next frame shows a body on the ground.

The video goes on to show people carrying the body and mourning in what seems to be an active combat zone.

Several key questions arise:

Why was there a cut between the frame showing people running from gunshots and the frame showing a body on the ground?
Can ITV News confirm what happened and how much time elapsed between the two frames?
Did ITV News probe the likelihood of Hamas terrorists in the vicinity who may have been shooting?
Did ITV News rely solely on the eyewitness testimony of the cameraman, and if so, was it him or the network that edited the footage?
The video shows one more person wearing a press vest, who was filming the scene on his phone. Why were journalists in this area to begin with and what were they filming?

Moral vs. Journalistic Authority

These are not agenda-driven questions. They are questions that any journalist should have asked.

But apparently, ITV News was in too much of a rush to promote a “good story” than it was to do journalistic due diligence and investigate before presenting such an inflammatory accusation.

Instead of acknowledging how little information was known about the incident, the network packaged it inside an emotional narrative showing an interview with the victim before he was shot before cutting straight to his anguished wife minutes later.

It also brought two lawyers to support its claims, although we suspect an interview with a video expert might have been money better spent.

ITV News also mentioned the accidental killing of Israeli hostages by IDF soldiers, as though this acts as further proof of the IDF targeting innocent civilians. What a shame the outlet did not balance this with footage of Hamas terrorists wearing civilian clothing and armed with suicide belts as they attempt to blend in with innocent civilians.

Evidence and questions aside, ITV News’ John Irvine felt more than comfortable reaching his conclusion after viewing just three minutes of footage:

I think this strips away at Israel’s moral authority and makes it more difficult for Israel’s allies to support this campaign.

It’s incredible stuff. A supposedly reputable journalist claiming that a dubiously edited clip might prompt Israeli allies to withdraw their support.

As long as the questions above are left unasked and unanswered, the only thing that may be stripped away is the journalistic integrity of ITV News.

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 News Video of ‘Possible Israeli War Crime’ Raises Disturbing Questions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters

Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.

The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.

The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.

Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.

Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.

The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”

“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.

Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”

The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.

The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week

Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot

i24 NewsPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.

The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes

Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

i24 NewsThe Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of ​​operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”

The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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