After allegations that a group of photographers knew about the October 7 attacks in advance, Israel has said they have been added to a list of people it will “eliminate.”
Danny Danon, Israel’s representative to the U.N., took to X (formerly Twitter), to say that his country’s internal security agency will “eliminate all participants of the October 7 attack” and that the photographers who recorded the events “will be added to that list.”
A member of Israel’s war cabinet and former defense minister Benny Gantz backed up Danon’s sentiment: “Journalists found to have known about the massacre, and still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered — are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”
Last week, PetaPixel reported on CNN severing ties with Palestinian photojournalist Hassan Eslaiah after a report from Israeli website Honest Reporting turned up a photo of Eslaiah posing with Hamas leader Yahya Sinway. There was also allegedly a clip of Eslaiah riding on the back of a motorcycle holding a grenade.
There were three other photographers also implicated in the Honest Reporting article; all of them submitted pictures to Reuters and The Associated Press which were published in CNN and The New York Times among others.
The New York Times shot back strongly against the allegation that it knew anything of the October 7 attack before the fact, calling them “untrue and outrageous.”
“It is reckless to make those allegations, putting our journalists on the ground in Israel and Gaza at risk,” reads a statement. “The Times has extensively covered the Oct. 7 attacks and the war with fairness, impartiality, and an abiding understanding of the complexities of the conflict.”
The Times adds that it has begun working with one of the accused photographers, Yousef Masoud, after the October 7 attack and reviewed the work he did for AP that day and determined that “he was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded.”
A Reuters spokesperson got in touch with PetaPixel to say: “We have found no evidence to support the claim of coordination with Hamas by the two freelance journalists whose images we published on October 7.”
AP also says that it had no advanced knowledge of the attack, but like CNN, says that it will no longer work with Eslaiah.
The New York Times spoke with Eslaiah who, despite the picture of him with Sinwar, says he has no links to Hamas. Eslaiah also says it’s hypocrisy that Israeli journalists accompany the Israel Defense Forces into Gaza.
“Why are we not allowed, and they are allowed?” he says.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.