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Why Are the Media Ignoring the Gaza Protests Against Hamas?
Palestinians protest to demand an end to war, chanting anti-Hamas slogans, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, March 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Photojournalists working for Reuters and the AP in Gaza are usually very quick and efficient.
They reach the sites of Israeli air strikes or the morgues of local hospitals within minutes. Some of them don’t hesitate to cross borders and film atrocities, as they did on October 7, 2023.
Yet late in the afternoon on Tuesday, March 25, when hundreds of Gazans took to the streets in the first of the largest protest against Hamas since its attack on Israel, Reuters and AP crews were absent — more potential proof that these so-called “journalists” are beholden to or cooperating with the terror group.
Gazan photojournalists have been at the scene documenting every possible story in the service of Hamas’ propaganda campaign, including the obscene hostage release ceremonies.
But when Gazans protest against Hamas, wire services like @Reuters & @AP are reduced to relying on… pic.twitter.com/M3nZU3uA1T
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 26, 2025
The first story and video about the protest on the Reuters platform appeared only the next morning, based on social media posts. Several still images by an unidentified stringer went up past noon on Wednesday.
On the AP’s database, no visuals of the protest were published, and one text story based on “videos circulating online” appeared mid-morning on Wednesday.
As shown on social media, hundreds of defiant Gazans chanted “Hamas are terrorists,” in what seemed to be an organized and pre-planned demonstration.
Yet both agencies’ text stories were selective in the slogans they quoted from the protest: “Hamas out” and “We refuse to die” were mentioned, but not “Hamas are terrorists.”
And so news organizations that rely on Reuters and AP for Gaza coverage, and pay big bucks for it, had nothing solid to work with. Outlets like The New York Times, BBC News, CNN, The Guardian, and others had to use posts from X (formerly Twitter) as sources because the world’s largest news agencies suddenly went AWOL.
A Gazan who filmed the protest said on X that BBC and Al Jazeera refused to air his video because it showed Gazans “furious at Hamas terrorists using their hospitals as shields.” Presumably, someone at the wire services had similar thoughts that harmed the agencies’ timely and objective coverage.
Before posting this video, I waited 14 hours for BBC and Al Jazeera to air it. They refused. Why? Because it shows Gazans furious at Hamas terrorists using their hospitals as shields, chanting loud and clear: “Hamas are terrorists.” Yes, that supports Trump’s plan to crush the… pic.twitter.com/6CsjPVsf24
— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) March 25, 2025
Meanwhile, what could be easily found on the Reuters and AP platforms were the same old graphic visuals of bodies, debris, rubble, or terrified children. Not to mention Hamas’ hostage release ceremonies or the heartbreaking stories in which displaced Gazans are interviewed blaming Israel.
For HonestReporting, this isn’t surprising. From October 7, 2023, onwards, we have exposed the unethical ties between Hamas and news agencies’ journalists in Gaza. The terror group has showered them with honors and awards, and some have served the terror group’s media office as instructors or “work partners.”
But the problem is bigger than that: what did Reuters’ and AP’s top editors do on Tuesday, when news of the rare protest broke? It wasn’t in the middle of the night, and the protest lasted for a considerable time. Did they tell their Gaza crews to run and cover it? Or did they prefer to avoid conflict and accept whatever excuse they were given?
And the excuses are hard to argue with: Gazan journalists can claim that a scene is too dangerous to cover, too far, or too difficult logistically. No one argues with them, because they cultivate an image of courageous war reporters. Sadly, their “courage” seems to end when it doesn’t suit Hamas.
This is all just another reminder that Hamas controls the media in Gaza. Everything that comes out of the enclave, and especially what’s delivered quickly and efficiently (like the al-Ahli hospital false libel against Israel) — is tainted.
What’s not properly published, what’s omitted, and what’s delayed, is the truth.
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 the Media Ignoring the Gaza Protests Against Hamas? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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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