Coverage of the spike in violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s terrorist rulers Hamas has been predominantly depicted as somehow connected to the clashes that have erupted in Jerusalem, especially since the beginning of the Passover holiday (See here, here, here and here).
To drive home the point, media outlets have focused on the fact that a rocket launched from Gaza this week – as tensions in the Old City peaked – was the first attack against Israel from the coastal enclave in nearly four months.
However, news organizations are failing to report that Hamas has been anything but quiet during this period.
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Media Confuse Cause With Effect
To read the reports by some of the world’s most widely read news publications, one could be forgiven for thinking that steps taken by Israeli security forces to protect worshippers in Jerusalem during a period when Passover, Ramadan and Easter converged are the primary provocation for Hamas.
Such a depiction becomes possible when the media choose to ignore crucial facts about how the rulers of the Gaza Strip have been continuously inciting, and acting, against the Jewish state.
On April 14, the leaders of several Gaza Strip-based Palestinian terror groups issued a unified call for an escalation of violence against Israel, causing concern ahead of Ramadan prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Related Reading: Associated Press and Others Obscure Palestinian Incitement That Encourages Mob Violence
The Palestinian Authority’s leading faction Fatah joined this clarion call, telling the Palestinian public to “confront IDF forces and settlers throughout the West Bank.”
Indeed, Hamas and the PA repeatedly spread the lie that the Muslim holy site is being threatened by Israel.
Unreported: Massive Terror Tunnel Unearthed, Secret $500 Million War Chest
The Israel Defense Forces publicly uncovered on April 2 Hamas’ deepest terror tunnel to date. Members of the IDF’s Yahalom unit, which specializes in underground warfare, said the tunnel from the southern part of the Gaza Strip descends to 70 meters (230 feet) beneath the earth’s surface.
Israel detected the tunnel mere meters in front of the border barrier. The IDF believes that Hamas intended for the tunnel to extend into Israel as a means to attack residential communities and military facilities – terrorists would have been able to remain in the tunnel for several days to prepare for such an assault.
HonestReporting published in February, “As Media Berate Israel, Hamas Reportedly Hiding Enough Funds to Fully Rebuild Gaza Strip,” which amplified an earlier exposé on Hamas’ secret foreign investment portfolio reportedly worth some $500 million.
According to documents obtained from Western intelligence sources, Gaza’s ruling faction — deemed a terror group in its entirety by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Israel and Japan — holds interests in at least 40 international companies.
The alleged $500 million Hamas has stashed away could be used to repair all damages in Gaza from last May’s 11-day conflict the terrorist group initiated with Israel, as well as offset any resulting economic losses.
Related Video: Vice News Downplays Hamas Terror Tunnels, Contends Gaza Child Soldiers Receive ‘Fitness Training’ (VIDEO)
Also unreported by the international media was that Hamas’ headquarters in Istanbul has directed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israelis and laundered millions of dollars, according to a new report published in January by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
According to the report, Hamas senior officials — most of them former security prisoners serving sentences for terrorism, who were released by Israel in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange — “are operating from Turkey against Israel.”
The report also points out that the December counter-terror raid in the West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron by Israeli security forces was accompanied by a departure ban on several senior Hamas operatives who allegedly “would [otherwise] link up with Hamas officials overseas.”
Related Reading: CNN Buries Truth About Palestinian Prisoners Released in Gilad Shalit Deal
Since Israel announced an unconditional ceasefire with Hamas, ending the Gaza conflict after 11 days during which thousands of rockets were launched at Israeli population centers, the terrorist group has been on a war footing. Yet the media have been seemingly reluctant to call out this saber-rattling, along with Hamas’ incessant incitement to violence. Instead, prominent news organizations have chosen to zero in on Israel’s defensive actions in Jerusalem.
As a result, the line between acts of terrorism and steps taken to protect innocent lives from such acts is being blurred.
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Featured Image: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency
