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Revolting: How the Media Used Oct. 7 Anniversary to Focus on Hamas-Instigated War in Gaza
The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
October 7, 2024 marked one year since Hamas’ murderous rampage through southern Israel. As Israelis commemorated the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, how did the international media cover this somber anniversary?
By and large, the media coverage was both empathetic and nuanced, with news organizations dedicating much of their coverage to the effect that October 7 has had on Israel and interviewing survivors, family members of the 1,200 who were murdered during the atrocities, and family members of hostages still being held in Gaza.
However, both online and in print, some media outlets chose to use the anniversary to spotlight the cost of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, despite the fact that October 7 is not the key anniversary of the war.
In effect, they chose Israel’s national day of sorrow as the springboard through which to criticize Israel’s defensive military operations and to subtly move the spotlight away from the atrocities committed by Hamas and other Palestinians on that fateful day.
For example, on its Instagram page, TIME Magazine highlighted the work of a Palestinian photographer, who had first spoken to the American magazine early in the war and was now speaking to it again after a year of documenting the fighting and destruction in Gaza.
However, as TIME noted, October 7 was not the anniversary of the first time this Palestinian photographer spoke with the magazine, it was a couple of weeks later.
So, why did the magazine choose to feature his story on October 7, and not on the actual anniversary of its first conversation with the Gaza-based photographer?
Similarly, on October 7, Reuters’ photos account on X (formerly Twitter) posted an award-winning image of a Gazan woman cradling a dead child’s body, captioning it “A picture of her grief gripped the world. A year on, Gaza woman haunted by memories.”
However, this image is from October 17.
Why did the esteemed wire service choose to post this image on October 7 and not on the actual anniversary of when it was taken?
A picture of her grief gripped the world. A year on, Gaza woman haunted by memories Mohammed Salem pic.twitter.com/LgiGxu7ty2
— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) October 7, 2024
On its Instagram page, Vanity Fair’s sole post on October 7 paid lip service to the atrocities before turning its attention to the war with a post entitled “The Sorrow of Gaza, One Year After the October 7 Attacks.”
The accompanying quote by war correspondent Janine di Giovanni not only created a moral equivalence between those killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas War (which includes killed Hamas terrorists) and Israeli civilians that were intentionally massacred on October 7, but also implicitly drew a connection between the war in Gaza and the Holocaust and the African & Balkan genocides of the 1990s.
On its X page, Sky News chose to commemorate October 7 by publishing an in-depth look at the destruction in Gaza, deeming it “a year since the war in Gaza began.”
In this long thread, only a passing reference was made to Hamas and several posts were specifically designed to paint Israel’s defensive campaign in the coastal enclave as some kind of cruel and unusual operation that falls outside the bounds of normative warfare.
No, it’s not a year since the war in Gaza began, @SkyNews.
Today is a year since Hamas launched its brutal attack on Israel, murdering 1,200 & taking some 250 hostages.
If you are going to look back at what has been lost, maybe start with that. https://t.co/N5WRqkO7Es
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 7, 2024
Along with social media posts, there were several front pages of printed newspapers that also moved the spotlight away from the atrocities of October 7.
For example, The Independent’s front page, headlined “365 days of horror since October 7,” was a mashup of different numbers related to the war in Gaza, but only featured one number related to the Israeli victims of Hamas.
This is how the @Independent marked October 7: by editing the jihadis out of the story. The word “Hamas” doesn’t appear once. pic.twitter.com/V4yZMQ15vf
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) October 7, 2024
For other newspapers, it wasn’t the replacement of coverage of Hamas’ atrocities with coverage of the war in Gaza that was the issue, it was the lack of substantial coverage altogether.
For example, The Chicago Tribune’s front page for October 7 featured two Israel-related articles — one AP copy about present fighting in Gaza and an article about how the war’s effects on the Chicago city council’s sentiments.
Compared to the front pages of other newspapers, which dedicated a substantial portion of the page to a reminder of what occurred on October 7, The Chicago Tribune’s coverage was clearly lacking.
And it wasn’t only news coverage that was an issue with some media outlets, but also opinion pieces.
On the eve of October 7, The Guardian saw fit to publish a grotesque op-ed by Naomi Klein, which accused Israel of turning the trauma of October 7 into a weapon.
Grotesque: Israel can’t even mourn its dead from Oct. 7 without @guardian platforming Naomi Klein to accuse the country of weaponizing its trauma.
If you can’t sympathize with innocent civilians butchered by terrorists, then you are the problem.https://t.co/ONhRmJ3pac pic.twitter.com/1emgTKzxa6
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 6, 2024
Similarly, on October 8, The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by Daoud Kuttab which seemed to both minimize the horrors of October 7 while also implicitly justifying them.
This is beyond disgusting. @latimes published an opinion piece that tries to justify Hamas butchering civilians https://t.co/HzyNkYDMEC pic.twitter.com/S0r2Gr6sgA
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 8, 2024
As we pass a year since the October 7 atrocities and the subsequent beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, it is reasonable for media organizations to place extra focus on the toll that the war has wrought on the Gaza Strip and its Palestinian residents.
However, what is not reasonable is using the anniversary to take focus away from the atrocities and massacres that were committed by Hamas and its allies in southern Israel and instead use the opportunity to place a spotlight on what is occurring in the Gaza Strip.
By using October 7 to focus on Gaza (especially when commemorating an event that took place after October 7), these media organizations are helping to create a false narrative that seeks to diminish what occurred on October 7 or to create a moral equivalence between those atrocities and the situation in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing war.
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 Revolting: How the Media Used Oct. 7 Anniversary to Focus on Hamas-Instigated War in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.