Legacy Media Bias: Quoting Hamas, Doubting Israel

"We would love to see Hamas vacate the hospitals that it's using [as] command posts immediately."

"We would love to see all the people calling for Israel to take steps to protect hospitals [to] call for Hamas to vacate the hospitals and stop using civilians as human shields."

"We would love to see Hamas take some of the fuel reserves it's sitting on and use that to supply hospitals in northern Gaza."

"We would love to see Hamas have taken the fuel that Israel offered it yesterday, that they declined, for use at Al-Shifa hospital."

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller

Smoke rises as displaced Palestinians take shelter at Al Shifa hospital, amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, November 8, 2023.

(photo credit: REUTERS/DOAA ROUQA)

How strange it is that reputable, 'legacy' news outlets such as the wire services that so many print papers take their stories from reporting on the ground in Gaza base their versions of events primarily on statements produced by Hamas officials who, representing the interests of the terrorist group are known for their extraordinary facility in evading the truth and embellishing falsehoods for public digestion. And the public does digest the Hamas version of a reality that exists in the world in their heads as is evidenced by protesters gathering in huge numbers in cities worldwide to express their rage with Israel defending itself against the vile, lethal sadism of Hamas savagery.

 

The Israeli military screened footage taken from bodycams worn by Hamas, CCTV, dashboard cameras and mobile phones

 

Yet it is Hamas that is defended in these protests that label themselves 'pro-Palestinian'. Where congratulatory huzzahs ring out for 'the resistance', and candies are handed out in celebration of the great victory in torturing, mutilating, raping, beheading, children, women, teens, the elderly. Where entire families taking shelter in their 'safe rooms' in villages and towns at the Gaza border in Israel, die a gruesome death when their homes are set afire, or grenades are tossed into their homes.

The courage it takes to defy the basic tenets of human rights by depriving people of their lives, of terrorizing helpless people by the sadistic actions of heavily armed Hamas operatives rounding up the vulnerable, from infants to grandparents, the infirm, girls and women, and of course a handful of soldiers to be hauled back to Gaza as hostages. Truly a command performance. One that has commanded the attention of 'pro-Palestinian' admirers. Who, before the IDF had the opportunity to respond on that fateful October 7 day, brought out gangs of people protesting Israel's 'disproportionate' response.

"Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants escalated near and around Gaza City's besieged and overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire", a Reuters recently published report read. Quoting 'Palestinian officials' aka Hamas operatives who prefer being referred to as 'militants' rather than terrorists and legacy media is pleased to comply. Had they done their due diligence they would have known that no IDF explosions and gunfire occurred at those hospitals other than in response to Hamas's initiatives.

 

Hamas video provided by Israel Defense Force

 

This is a war, caused not by Israel, but by a terrorist group whose purpose of existence, according to its charter, is the full destruction of the Jewish state, and its people. Reuters went on to quote the Shifa Hospital director, claiming Israel was "launching a war on Gaza City hospitals", accusing Israel of targeting a school [despite that schools have been closed], then discussing "missiles" that "landed in the courtyard of Al Shifa"; the result of yet another rocket directed at Israeli forces misfiring.

Then, there's Associated Press reports picked up by the major news, noting Israel's contention that Hamas operates a subterranean base located directly beneath the hospital, claiming it repeated Israel's assertion "without providing evidence". When in fact, weeks before the Israel Defense Forces had presented "concrete evidence" to journalists that included intercepted communications and admissions by a number of enemy combatants that Hamas built a network of tunnels beneath the hospital where hundreds of terrorists "flooded into the hospital" following their massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7.

 

Hamas weapons found inside Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, following a raid by Israeli special forces, November 15, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

 

Hamas exploits the hospital's generators to power its underground bunker, using energy that could be maintained for babies in incubators, along with other medical equipment no longer usable with no source of electricity. Hamas terrorists are seen on video firing from inside Sheikh Hamad Hospital, at Israeli forces. An invitation to the IDF to fire back; 'evidence' of Israel's 'atrocities', in attacking Gaza's hospitals. The videos of the IDF uncovering a tunnel entrance from Sheikh Hamad Hospital and a command-and-control centre where a large weapons cache was hidden below a children's hospital are now in the public realm.

Reputable international media outlets and anti-Israel protesters will not give credence to the overwhelming evidence of Hamas's ongoing war crimes, even as the organization makes little effort to screen its use of civilians as human shields. An open letter published last week signed by over 1,200 reporters, editors, photographers, producers and other workers in newsrooms around the world, laments the death of 36 journalists during the course of the war, accusing Israel of "lethally targeting journalists" while hailing the "brave efforts" of "our colleagues in Gaza".

Nothing seems to stop a bigoted media of using inflammatory and false terms like "apartheid", "ethnic cleansing", and "genocide" in connection with Israel, while accusing Israel of committing war crimes. No evidence required in that case. Evidently murdering children and babies, sodomizing girls and young women and taking hundreds of civilian hostages is justified, as long as the victims are Jews.

In this image taken from a video released by the Israeli Defense Forces on November 15, 2023, Israeli soldiers walk in the area of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)