Meet The AP Journo Who Chronicled The Hamas Attack In Real Time … With A Grenade In His Hand

NOTE: This article may include commentary reflecting the author’s position.
While it’s important to have on-the-ground reporting, there are some serious ethical questions about the “freelance journalists” who are hired by major news outlets.

There should be a hard line between reporting the news as it is happening and acting as propagandists for a terrorist organization as they rape, torture, and slaughter innocents… but apparently, there isn’t one.

Almost immediately on the morning of October 7, major news outlets had some pretty shocking on-the-ground photos and video footage of Hamas terrorists attacking Israeli civilians and the IDF.

HonestReporting asks some pretty basic questions that the Partisan Press is getting in a huff about.

What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.

AP: Photojournalists or Infiltrators?

Four names appear on AP’s photo credits from the Israel-Gaza border area on October 7: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.
Eslaiah, a freelancer who also works for CNN, crossed into Israel, took photos of a burning Israeli tank, and then captured infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza.
Source: HonestReporting

There are some real questions to ask about the freelance journalist Hassan Eslaiah, who managed to capture some very early moments of the attack on Israel.

What should be noted is that in the videos that include shots of Eslaiah, he isn’t wearing a Press vest or helmet, and yet did not appear concerned that he would be attacked by the terrorists. Weird, eh?

HonestReporting posted several screenshots of his photos.

Here is one of a burning Israeli tank with the caption, “Palestinians celebrate the destruction of an Israeli tank at the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of Khan Younis, during a surprise attack on Israel,  Saturday, October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)”

Eslaiah was capturing the terror attack in real-time. One photo credited to him is of Hamas terrorists near the gate of Kibbutz Kfar Azza where Israelis were slaughtered.

Another photo captured by Eslaiah is of the Palestinians who casually went into Israel and looted as Israelis were being raped, tortured, and murdered by Hamas terrorists.

ClashDaily covered the nonchalant looting of kibbutzim by residents of Gaza here:

• WATCH: Security Video Shows Palestinian Civilians Looting Kibbutz After Hamas Attack

Of course, the AP refuses to use the word “terrorist” to describe Hamas, so the caption reads, “Palestinians from the Gaza Strip enter Kibbutz Kfar Azza on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)”.

The Propaganda Press has decided that even though Hamas has been labeled a terrorist organization by most Western governments, they’re just not going to call them that because it wrecks the pro-Palestine/anti-Israel narrative that they’re actively crafting.

• Associated Press Guidelines Favors The Hamas Propaganda War — Reporters Told To Avoid Using ‘Terrorist’
• PROPAGANDA PRESS: Useful Idiots In The Media Back Off From Calling Hamas Terrorists ‘Terrorists’

Another photo by Eslaiah is inside Kibbutz Kfar Aza with the caption clearly stating that it is during the terror attack.

Eslaiah also posted a video on social media where he was traveling into Israel on the morning of October 7 while holding a grenade in his hand.

Yo, @AP, @Reuters, @cnn – what your freelancer in Gaza Hassan Eslaiah is doing on a motorbike with a grenade, on his way to the massacre of women and babies? Is a grenade part of the equipment you provide? pic.twitter.com/jU85KEo7Ec

— עמית סגל Amit Segal (@amit_segal) November 9, 2023

*own

— עמית סגל Amit Segal (@amit_segal) November 9, 2023

In a now-deleted post on social media platform X, Eslaiah posted a video of himself in front of a burning IDF tank. His caption in Arabic was “Live from inside the Gaza Strip settlements.”

“Everyone who were [sic] inside this tank were kidnapped, everyone who were [sic] inside the tank were kidnapped a short while ago by al-Qassam Brigades [Hamas’ armed wing], as we have seen with our own eyes,” reported Eslaiah in the video below.

And here he is on October 7 joyously reporting the massacre. pic.twitter.com/R977XOBbuL

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) November 8, 2023

In a statement, Reuters accused HonestReporting of suggesting that they had prior knowledge of the October 7 terror attack and that they had journalists embedded with Hamas. Clearly, the “news” organization didn’t read the report.

Please read our report. We did not accuse @Reuters of collusion. We quite rightly raised some serious ethical issues regarding news outlets’ association with these freelancers and asked important and relevant questions that everyone deserves answers to.https://t.co/KcdXMd4DYF https://t.co/MmCvA5orDo

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 9, 2023

This is nothing new. It looks like a number of the “freelance journalists” in Gaza have a pretty clear anti-Israel bias. HonestReporting had previously exposed a videographer covering the Israel-Gaza War who had expressed admiration for Hitler on social media in the past.

• NOT SATIRE: New York Times Hires Pro-Hitler, Pro-Hamas Videographer To Cover Israel-Gaza War

That guy was listed in the byline on a video essay on the aftermath of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s rocket that fell onto the parking lot of a hospital in Gaza that Hamas blamed on an Israeli air strike.

It appears that HonestReporting’s deep dive into who these “freelance journalists” in Gaza actually are is causing some news outlets to pause and reflect on who they are relying on for their reporting.

UPDATE: @ynetnews is reporting that @CNN has suspended ties with Eslaiah despite not finding “any reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us.”

Not employing journalists who appear to be complicit in a massacre is the absolute lowest bar. Regardless… https://t.co/qTFN8bsj5N pic.twitter.com/SEdv8CVc8P

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 9, 2023

Good. One-sided coverage isn’t “news” — it’s actively pushing a narrative, and that narrative is causing a shocking rise in antisemitism all over the West right now.

A big chunk of the problems that we have right now fall at the feet of major media outlets who aren’t open and honest about the bias of their so-called “journalists.” We no longer have people who just report the facts, they actively insert bias into their reports and don’t even bother to add a disclaimer the way that we do here at ClashDaily. Shameful.

Related:

• WaPo Caption Said Israeli Children Held As Hostages In Gaza Were ‘Detained’ By Hamas
• WATCH: Saudi Journo Is More Honest About Hamas Than The New York Times
• Libs And Journos POUNCE On Gaza Hospital ‘Bombing’ — There’s Just One BIG Problem…
• Journo Tries To Push Israel ‘Ceasefire’ Talking Points … Gets Taken To School

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