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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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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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