In recent days, the Israeli army has exposed evidence of Hamas terror activity inside and underneath Gaza’s Shifa hospital. But instead of simply reporting it, media outlets have downplayed the evidence in various ways: By hinting that it has been faked, by claiming that it did not prove the existence of a Hamas “command center,” by quoting unreliable Hamas officials, or simply by burying the story.
By doing so, media have diverted attention from Israel’s just war against a murderous terror organization and turned it into a parallel war of narratives suggesting that Israel lacks credibility and therefore the war on Hamas loses legitimacy.
Here is the evidence revealed by the army so far:
- 27/10 – A phone call between two Gazans confirming that Hamas headquarters is located underneath Shifa hospital
- 28/10 – An interrogation of two Hamas terrorists confirming the organization’s use of hospitals, including Shifa
- 03/11 – A phone call with a Gaza medical official confirming Hamas holds half a million liters of fuel reserves under Shifa hospital
- 15/11 – Weapons, military gear with Hamas insignia, and technological assets found in Shifa’s MRI building
- 15/11 – A tunnel shaft and a a booby-trapped vehicle carrying a weapons arsenal are found at Shifa hospital
- 19/11 – A fortified terror tunnel, 55 meters-long and 10 meters deep, is exposed underneath Shifa hospital
- 19/11 – CCTV footage from October 7 showing two hostages taken into Shifa hospital
And here are some “highlights” from media outlets that preferred to choose wilful blindness over the facts.
CNN and BBC’s ‘Investigative’ Efforts
CNN and the BBC have both invested what seems to be a significant effort to debunk the Israeli army’s video showing weapons and ammunition at the MRI ward of Shifa.
The two networks have gone to great lengths to hint that Israel may have manipulated evidence. They have checked details like the time on the wristwatch of the Israeli army’s spokesman and the number of weapons he displayed in comparison to a larger amount shot later by international media. As the BBC reported:
And what we see in the two videos doesn’t precisely match. For example, there’s one gun in the IDF video, two, by the time of the BBC footage. Israel has told ‘BBC Verify’ this is because more weaponry and terrorist assets were discovered throughout the day. Israel also says its video is a single shot with no edits. But this appears to be an edit. We don’t know the reasons for that edit nor how significant it is. The IDF though says suggestions it’s manipulating the media are incorrect.
They did include the army’s claim that more weapons had been found later, but the urgency to debunk IDF evidence is astonishing and one-sided. No such effort was made to debunk the claims of Hamas, which denies operating from the hospital.
The BBC also gave the stage to an “analyst” who claimed that Israel had “doctored” evidence:
WATCH-What the actual FUCK is going on with @bbcnews??
This interview was recorded AFTER the IDF released their evidence this evening that Hamas were using Al Shifa hospital
The BBC are now just allowing Hamas to use it as a mouthpiece pic.twitter.com/b19DP5A2Bp
— We Stand With Israel (@SussexFriends) November 19, 2023
But the network failed to mention that the analyst is also a member of the anti-Israel NGO al-Shabaka.
The result is twofold: Undermining Israel’s credibility while sanitizing the terrorists who stored the weapons — irrespective of the amount — inside the hospital.
The BBC also attempted to show that the evidence falls short of a Hamas “command center” underneath the hospital, suggesting they may point at what the US has referred to as a mere “node”:
The IDF video also shows military equipment in other locations, though we can’t verify how it came to be there. And what we see in this IDF video doesn’t equate to Israel’s description of al-Shifa as ‘an operational command center’ for Hamas. The US is using a different phrase, saying al-Shifa was used as ‘a command and control node.’ That implies a much smaller facility.
Such a game of terminology is employed in pursuit of portraying Israel as, at best, unreliable, and at worst, a liar, while normalizing the existence of terror weapons inside hospitals.
The BBC’s Jeremy Bowen has made a similar claim:
What has been recovered includes some Kalashnikov rifles – these are common in the Middle East – a tunnel entrance, of which there are many in Gaza, some military uniforms and a booby-trapped vehicle.
Utterly incredible. @BowenBBC trying to “normalize” the presence of weapons in a Gaza hospital. Anything to avoid acknowledging that Hamas could be using Al Shifa for nefarious means.
Keep going, Jeremy. Maybe you’ll end up on Israel’s favorite satirical comedy show next week. https://t.co/jN3kZ40rPc
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 17, 2023
The Guardian Links ‘Modest’ Evidence to War Legitimacy
The Guardian has echoed BBC’s investigative analysis trying to debunk Israel’s evidence from Shifa, but it went further.
After claiming the arsenal found in the hospital was a “modest” collection of “small arms,” it suggested that without better evidence Israel would lose its justification for the war:
The evidence produced so far falls well short of that. IDF videos have shown only modest collections of small arms, mostly assault rifles, recovered from the extensive medical complex.
More immediately and directly, the details of the Shifa raid have an impact on the international climate in which Israel is conducting its war. Countries such as the UK, Germany and most importantly, the US, have resisted calls for a ceasefire on the grounds that Israel’s actions constitute legitimate self-defence. Every day without convincing evidence from the raid makes that argument harder to pursue.
It seems like the butchering and kidnapping of Israelis by Hamas on October 7, as well as the constant launching of rockets against Israel since then, is not enough Israeli legitimacy for The Guardian.
The newspaper’s columnist Owen Jones even attempted to ridicule the video evidence of terrorists dragging hostages into Shifa. Referring to the exposed hospital’s CCTV footage from October 7, he suggested the hostages were taken there for medical treatment:
Sorry, what’s the claim here exactly?
That Al-Shifa hospital is a Hamas command and control centre because injured hostages were taken there for medical treatment?
The presence of injured hostages definitely justifies Israel’s massacre of the hospital. Case closed. https://t.co/78J0HAguNc
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) November 19, 2023
If the treatment of hostages was indeed Hamas’ priority, the terrorists could have taken them to at least five other hospitals en route before reaching Shifa:
Every possible route Hamas terrorists could have taken the hostages into Gaza would have passed through at least 5 other hospitals before reaching Shifa Hospital.
They didn’t take them there for “medical treatment”; they brought them specifically to Shifa because it’s their… pic.twitter.com/g40vAM4sdK
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 19, 2023
Related Reading: Israel, Hamas & International Law: A Guide
REUTERS and AP’s Unreliable Talking Heads
Another way the media have tried to undermine Israel’s evidence is to rely on very specific “witnesses” or “officials.” In Reuters and AP’s case, it’s Munir al-Bursh, Director General of the Palestinian Health Ministry.
AP quotes him as saying that “Patients, women and children are terrified” inside Shifa. Reuters says he “dismissed the Israeli statement on the tunnel under the hospital as a ‘pure lie’.”
What the two agencies fail to mention is that Mr. al-Bursh cannot be trusted because he is a part of Hamas government who doesn’t even try to hide his support of terrorists. (See the thread below or David Collier’s investigation for more evidence.)
Who exactly are the people giving the interviews and sourcing the stories from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital to the mainstream Western media?
Disturbing and must-read 🧵: https://t.co/wBUAMR4uTt
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 19, 2023
AP also buried the story about the CCTV hostages footage amid a wider story about ongoing war developments. It added that it “was not able to independently confirm the military’s findings.” An earlier version of their story included the denials of Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who was quoted without such a caveat.
Journalists should stick to the basics of their profession — report the facts, attributed as necessary.
But minimizing the evidence by suggesting that what Israel has exposed is not enough or fake, while relying on the denials of a deceitful terror organization, is nothing less than a complete ethical and journalistic collapse.
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