NICHOLAS WOODE-SMITH: Hamas fosters deceit about deaths of journalists in Gaza

Don’t just accept the numbers or the nature of journalists killed in Gaza. Throughout Israel’s long conflict with terrorist groups and its aggressive neighbours, civilian deaths and specifically the deaths of journalists, have been weaponised and used to paint the tiny state as a war criminal.

Hamas knows it cannot win a physical war against Israel. So it instead uses civilian deaths, deception and propaganda to turn global and public opinion against the nation. Claims about journalists being intentionally killed by the Israel Defence Forces are just another episode in Hamas’ shameless propaganda war.

At the outset, it is disingenuous to claim that Israel killed these journalists, intentionally or even unintentionally. It is an historical reality that war correspondents are killed in active war zones. It comes with the territory. Real journalists, functioning in war zones, are embedded in combat units or in active battlefields. Shrapnel, crossfire, bombardment and all manner of hazards clearly endanger these reporters.

The White Paper on Global Journalism, published by the International Federation of Journalists, reports that since 1990 2,658 journalists have been killed in combat. While this is tragic, individuals who willingly go into war zones must accept that they may be killed in the crossfire. Terrorist groups like Hamas also do not differentiate between some journalists and combatants, which raises the danger to these reporters.

However, the incredibly inflated numbers of journalists claimed to have been slain in Gaza since October 7 — as reported by Hamas and accepted by once legitimate organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) — are not reflective of even the grim realities of war reporting. These statistics are deceptive at best, and dangerously fabricated at worst.

Investigative journalist David Collier has published a report exposing Hamas’ deceptions and the complicity of many media companies in spreading their lies. Of the 107 Palestinian journalists reported by Hamas to have died, 70 are listed by the CPJ in a report that contains no evidence of even the simplest fact checking. Of these 70 so-called journalists, 35 were openly associated with terror groups. At least 79% had published posts on social media openly supporting terrorism and celebrating the deaths of Jewish civilians.

Mohammed Sami tweeted on January 27: “No sound is louder than the sound of a gun” in response to the murder of seven Israelis in Jerusalem. Hisham Alnwajha celebrated the October 7 massacre on Twitter: “I swear my eyes cried with joy because of the bravery of our heroes. And what we’re hearing.” This was in response to the murder of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, many of whom were children, babies, teenagers, mothers and the elderly.

Duaa Sharaf was far blunter in her response to three Israelis being killed in Tel Aviv on April 7 2022: “Kill them, may Allah punish them with your hands, and humiliate them, and help you against them, and heal the hearts of a believing nation.”

CNN fired Hassan Eslaiah, a Gazan photojournalist, after discovering that he was not only clearly supportive of Hamas, but was embedded within its terrorist structures. Many large media houses employed (often unknowingly) freelance journalists who hid behind the veneer of neutrality while being active members of Hamas and serving their propaganda machine.

Nineteen of the journalists listed by the CPJ aren’t even journalists. A builder, an unemployed individual, a PR rep and more make up a sizeable chunk of this inflated list.

Many of the alleged journalists killed were claimed to have been killed while reporting in active war zones, where they were directly targeted by the IDF. But many were in fact killed in Hamas facilities, operating near Hamas leadership. These were not neutral journalists trying to expose the truth. They were propaganda operatives working for a genocidal terror group.

It is clear that the CPJ did not do its due diligence, and simply took Hamas’ list at face value. It should be obvious by now that a criminal gang that rapes and murders children shouldn’t be trusted to give accurate statistics. But for some reason some people will trust whatever number Hamas gives them, despite them having been caught lying in the past.

The death of any innocent is a tragedy, but there is a huge difference between civilians and journalists being unintentionally killed in a crossfire, and the intentional attempted genocide that Hamas perpetrated on October 7.

This war could end immediately if Hamas were to release the remaining hostages, as ordered by the International Criminal Court at the weekend. No-one else would have to die. But Hamas won’t surrender, because Palestinians deaths serve its cause far more than peace ever will.

• Woode-Smith is a political analyst, historian and author who has written extensively on the Israel-Hamas conflict.