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The Financial Times Relies on Hamas-Linked Journalist and Other Lies To Demonize Israel
Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
“Palestinian journalists in Gaza ‘Being starved’, media watchdog says,” is the headline of a recent Financial Times article that relies heavily on faulty claims made by an agenda-driven body.
It quotes a Gazan reporter who used to work for a Hamas-affiliated news agency and gives an uncritical platform to hypocritical foreign media outlets urging Israel to help Gazan freelancers — some of whom worked alongside Hamas as it murdered Israelis on October 7, 2023.
The Financial Times’ main source is the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a body that redefines international law to designate terrorists as journalists.
The article quotes Jodie Ginsberg, the CPJ’s chief executive, declaring that Gaza journalists are “becoming emaciated and struggling to focus,” which is “impacting their ability to report the situation.”
It even delves into demonization of Israel by implying that a proven Hamas terrorist is an innocent Al-Jazeera journalist:
The CPJ this week warned of “acute danger” to Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Anas Al-Sharif after an Israeli military spokesman claimed that Sharif was a Hamas fighter, something both he and the CPJ said was baseless.
The article mentions a joint statement by The Associated Press, AFP, BBC News, and Reuters, urging Israel to allow the eviction of their Gazan freelancers who are “increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families.”
But there is no mention — by the Financial Times or the news organizations — that some of these freelancers infiltrated into Israel with Hamas during the October 7 massacre, documented atrocities, and made a profit off of them.
The hypocrisy of crying press freedom and highlighting the dire conditions faced by journalists in Gaza, while ignoring the plight of Hamas hostages, is appalling.
It is also selfish. Because the hidden premise of both the CPJ and the foreign media that signed the statement is that journalists’ lives are worth more than the lives of “regular” people.
The people highlighted in the article should not be called journalists but Hamas propagandists.
To clarify, we don’t minimize anyone’s suffering during wartime — we simply question the hidden bias behind an article that favors journalists who have worked closely with Hamas.
This point is particularly striking, because the Financial Times quotes a journalist — Ola Al Asi — who worked for a Hamas affiliated news agency:
Ola Al Asi, 31, a freelance journalist sheltering in Gaza City, said she has started turning down assignments because she does not have the physical energy to report. She said she collapsed on the road this week while walking to a solar powered charging point to charge her laptop and finish a story.
A quick online search of Al Asi reveals that she prides herself for having worked at “Shehab” — a Hamas affiliated news agency in Gaza. It is not clear whether the Financial Times vetted her or not. Either way, she cannot be used as a reliable source — professionally or ethically.
Why should Israel grant access to her or other journalists who worked shoulder to shoulder with the terrorists and stood by when Israelis were murdered or kidnapped?
Are starving journalists more important than starving Israeli hostages, whose release by Hamas can end the war?
Only a self-centered, holier-than-thou approach that implicitly justifies journalists’ links to Hamas and expects Israel to ignore them can explain the twisted logic of the Financial Times and the news organizations that are still profiting off of Oct. 7 propaganda coverage.
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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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.