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The Media Plays Its Part in Hamas’ Disgusting ‘Parade’ of Trapped Hostages
Teenage hostages before Oct. 7 and after their capture by Hamas to Gaza. Photo: Screenshot from Israeli government X/Twitter account
Everything about the spectacle reeked of choreography: the green military-style uniforms forced upon them, the framed certificates they were compelled to hold aloft like unwilling contest winners, and the stage constructed for no other reason than to parade captives in front of the cameras.
This wasn’t just a release of hostages; it was a grotesque theater performance: Hamas’ carefully crafted attempt to project an image of power while simultaneously masquerading as benevolent.
The four young Israeli women — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag — soldiers kidnapped from the Nahal Oz army base in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 — were the reluctant stars of this PR charade.
And yet, somehow, some in the media managed to accept this sham whole. They didn’t just cover the hostage parade; they gave it legitimacy as if parading captives before the world wasn’t an affront to the very humanity Hamas so desperately wants to feign.
The BBC, for example, falsely claimed during a live report showing Hamas’ sickening PR stunt that the Israeli hostages were wearing the same IDF uniforms they had been kidnapped in. This, of course, was a blatant misrepresentation. As even Hamas’ own wealth of body camera footage from October 7 makes chillingly clear, the four were abducted from their beds and paraded through Gaza’s streets in bloodied pajamas and underwear — not military fatigues.
On multiple occasions, @BBCNews bought into the propaganda of Hamas’ staged hostage release, falsely claiming the four Israelis were wearing IDF uniforms they were dressed in on Oct. 7.
They were kidnapped in their pajamas & those uniforms on display in Gaza are not theirs. pic.twitter.com/S1OxcAfTZB
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 26, 2025
The truth behind Hamas’ choice to dress the hostages in army-style uniforms couldn’t be more transparent. It was a deliberate ploy to insinuate that these women were legitimate military targets. And yet, the BBC and others, including Australia’s ABC News played right into this lie, lending credence to Hamas’s narrative.
Media Rehabilitate Released Terrorists
As part of the first stage of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, Israel has agreed to release approximately 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 33 Israelis taken captive during Hamas’ terror attacks.
Saturday marked the second round of this so-called “first stage,” with 200 Palestinians walking free. Among them were more than 120 individuals serving life sentences for carrying out deadly attacks on Israelis — a reminder, if one were needed, of the kind of people Israel is being asked to trade for the return of its citizens.
And yet, outlets like The New York Times and the Associated Press went out of their way to engage in some serious image rehabilitation for the unrepentant mass murderers released, including when both chose to describe a terrorist serving a life sentence for attempted murder and planting an explosive as an “Islamic Jihad activist.”
Yes, “activist” — a term typically reserved for those campaigning for political or social change — was somehow deemed an appropriate label for a terrorist whose “activism” involved planning mass-casualty attacks on innocent civilians.
According to The New York Times, attempting to murder Jews on behalf of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is simply “activism.”
This isn’t journalism, @nytimes, it’s an apologism for terror. pic.twitter.com/Va8FlTMYUL
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 26, 2025
Meanwhile, CNN saw fit to elevate Haaretz journalist and terrorism apologist Gideon Levy, presenting his fringe views as though they reflected Israeli society. Incredibly, Levy was given a platform to draw a grotesque equivalence between the Israeli hostages and the released prisoners, referring to both as “hostages” and telling his CNN hosts they “may call” the convicted terrorists that.
“But at the same time, there are also dozens and dozens of released Palestinian hostages, and you may call them hostages.”
This is what happens when @CNN gives a platform to an extremist like Gideon Levy and attempts to pass him off as a mainstream Israeli commentator. pic.twitter.com/pC76fKJhQ4
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 25, 2025
Not to be outdone, The Washington Post gave the spotlight to infamous Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Khalida Jarrar, most recently arrested in 2019 after a PFLP terror attack that claimed the life of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb.
In an astonishing act of journalistic omission, the Post conveniently ignored her direct ties to violence, instead painting her as yet another misunderstood political figure rather than a key player in a terror organization.
But perhaps the most absurd was the WaPo’s characterization of the PFLP itself as a mere “small leftist armed group” — a shockingly mild description for a proscribed terrorist organization responsible for atrocities like the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue massacre, where Jewish worshipers were brutally hacked to death with axes and knives by PFLP terrorists.
Note to @washingtonpost: Being a member of a “small leftist armed group,” i.e. a terrorist organization, does not make Jarrar a “political activist.”
Reminder: In August 2019, a PFLP terror cell carried out a bombing against Israeli civilians, murdering 17-year-old Rina Shnerb. pic.twitter.com/1iCC9tYJ2i
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 26, 2025
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.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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