As the Israel-Hamas war erupted, photojournalists in Gaza working for major international outlets appeared to intentionally conceal the presence of Hamas gunmen operating inside Al Shifa Hospital. A visual analysis by HonestReporting reveals that despite overwhelming evidence of Hamas operatives at the medical facility, they were systematically excluded from published images. The findings suggest a deliberate journalistic cover-up that misled global audiences and obscured critical facts on the ground.
The analysis, which reveals an alarming photo bias, focused on one day of coverage — October 11, 2023 — and showed that tens of Hamas terrorists were present at the hospital, where they kept a watchful eye over the gathered media and managed the arrival of wounded into the emergency room.
Despite Hamas’ denial of using hospitals–a war crime Israel has repeatedly alleged–terrorists were clearly visible in wire service footage and social media that day, wearing uniforms or masks. But they don’t appear in the still photos distributed by Reuters, AP, or The New York Times, whose photojournalists at the site chose to leave the terrorists out of the frame and include only the wounded and dead.
Videos Vs. Photos
Here’s how we did our analysis:
First, we came across this Facebook reel from photojournalist Mariam Dagga (who currently works for AP), which shows the hospital entrance infested with Hamas forces in uniform (circled in red on the video), while dozens of journalists stood by. Whether they are police officers or masked gunmen, they all answer to and are controlled by Hamas:
Then, we found another angle of this video in a TRT X post, which clarified it had been taken on October 11, 2023 — several days after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in Israel and abducted hundreds into Gaza — some of them straight into the Shifa hospital, where the terror group had an underground tunnel infrastructure. (See our Interactive Hamas tunnel map for more information.)
Then, a search on the Reuters and AP platforms revealed that the two wire agencies had sent video and stills crews to the hospital that day.
But while the videographers couldn’t avoid showing Hamas operatives both inside and outside the hospital, the still photographers only took tight images of blood-stained victims, leaving Hamas out of the frame.
Here is a clip from a Reuters video from the hospital, clearly showing Hamas forces (circled in red):
And here are some still photos taken at the scene by Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem with no terrorists in sight:
Related Reading: EXPOSED: Foreign Media Journalists in Gaza Participated in Hamas’ “Loyalty” Day
Compromised Photojournalists
This photo bias may be explained by the fact that Salem has been honored by Hamas in the past. But it is alarming that no editor noticed the discrepancy between the videos and pictures.
The same issue is apparent in AP’s coverage at Shifa Hospital on the same date. The video shows Hamas people, one of them masked, managing the entry of wounded into the emergency room:
But the still photos, taken by Ali Mahmoud, only show victims of Israeli strikes:
This, too, comes as no surprise, because on October 7, 2023, Mahmoud was side by side with Hamas as he documented the abduction of Israeli hostages into Gaza.
The Reuters video also shows New York Times photojournalist Samar Abu Elouf, who stood at the entrance to the hospital, with a direct line of sight to Hamas operatives:
But instead of reporting the presence of Hamas forces at the hospital that day — which would have validated Israel’s claims against the terror group — she published a photo of Palestinians mourning their dead at the hospital along with an article about the “nightmare” that Gazans were going through:
Predictable as well, because Abu Elouf has been honored as a Hamas “work partner” in an official ceremony back in 2021.
Hiding the Truth
All of the above is a case study of just one day of coverage.
If this kind of manipulation has been going on since the beginning of the war, it’s clear that many photojournalists in Gaza shill for Hamas — out of fear or willingness.
By hiding the truth and erasing Hamas from the visuals, not only do they betray their professional mission of reporting the facts, but they also help Hamas perpetrate the war crime of hiding behind human shields in medical facilities.
A picture may be worth a thousand words. But in Gaza, what’s outside the frame is worth much more.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
