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Why Are Media Outlets Using Hamas as Their Sources?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressing a pro-Hamas rally in Istanbul. Photo: Reuters/Dilara Senkaya
It’s not often that a mainstream media outlet publishes a piece so full of disinformation that it ridicules itself as a credible news source.
We wrote this back in February regarding UPI’s inability to produce reliable news. Five months later, nothing has changed at the press outlet. Serial offender Adam Schrader is still unabashedly using terror groups and state-run Palestinian agencies as his main sources in articles.
Being a journalist comes with immense responsibility. Reporting complex world issues to the public is not something to be flippant about. While many have an agenda, it’s simply unacceptable and irresponsible for a reporter to consistently copy apparent press releases of recognized terror groups and pass them as your own pieces.
In the last few days alone, two articles dropped that seemed like sponsored content from both Hamas and the state-run WAFA Palestinian news agency.
In the first article, titled “Haniyeh touts Hamas’ diplomacy efforts in Eid message,” Schrader’s only source is Hamas, and the sole person quoted is Hamas political head Ismail Haniyeh. The whole article strokes Haniyeh’s ego, painting him as the diplomat of the century.
Schrader points to Hamas’ alleged ceasefire proposal in early May, which it claimed had been approved by Qatar and Egypt.
The Hamas leader pointed to its May 6 approval of a ceasefire proposal mediated by Egypt and Qatar, which outlined a three-phase plan to de-escalate the ongoing conflict. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the proposal with conditions.
If he had integrity, Schrader would write that a deal could not be “approved” if Israel was not involved in the negotiation process. He failed to acknowledge this important fact because again, he was only using Hamas as his source.
Likewise, his second article, titled “Israel uses UNRWA building as sniper post, report says,” is just as absurd — citing WAFA, as well as Amnesty International, a Palestinian NGO, and politicized Israeli organization B’Tselem — none of which have opposing views of the report at hand.
The official state-run Palestinian News Agency, known as WAFA, reported that Israeli forces detained a Palestinian person and injured a minor with shrapnel in the Far’a refugee camp, northeast of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, during the operation.
The arrest comes as nearly 9,300 Palestinian prisoners have been arrested and are currently held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, according to the Palestine Prisoner’s Society. Around 250 prisoners are children… Palestinians and their supporters often equate this practice to kidnapping.
It’s unclear if intentions are deliberately malicious, agenda-fueled, or if they result from sheer laziness. Regardless, there is zero context given to the IDF raid of a UN aid facility or the arrest of a “Palestinian person” during the raid and others during previous raids.
While he attributes the facts to their sources, there is no ignoring his one-sided report.
We suspected that Schrader was parroting a Hamas PR document back in February when we wrote that UPI was effectively using Hamas’ own talking points.
In this case, it’s not just Hamas’, but other terror supporters’ talking points as well.
As we said back then, “replete with errors, blatant anti-Israel bias, and some appalling Hamas-inspired justifications … it’s hard to believe a supposedly respectable news agency would publish such pieces…”
… or even continue to employ this writer. He’s not even close to doing his job. On the other hand, UPI seems like a lost cause.
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 Why Are Media Outlets Using Hamas as Their Sources? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.