News Reports Favour Hamas Again

After the tragic deaths of more than 100 people trying to obtain humanitarian aid in the northern part of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, many news outlets were quick to report the Hamas-run Gaza health authority’s claim that Israeli forces shot them dead as they waited for an aid delivery. See these reports by Reuters, NBC, Al Arabiya, and Al Jazeera.

However, information that emerged later in the day revealed that most of the deaths were the result of people being run over by trucks carrying the aid. Whilst the Gazans had been waiting for aid, they were not at the planned destination and, in effect, ambushed the convoy on its journey so as to grab aid for themselves - running the risk of injury and death as they did so.

What is troubling about the whole situation is that many media outlets again echoed Hamas’ words like ‘massacre’ and ‘opened fire’, implying that the Israelis were to blame for all the deaths, without waiting for Israel’s perspective.

Israel revealed that its troops were facilitating delivery of the aid but did shoot on two occasions - first to try to warn people away from the convoy and second when a group of Gazans approached Israeli units. Estimates of deaths resulting from Israeli fire range from 7 to 10, not ‘more than 100’ as claimed by Hamas. And those 7 to 10 may have included terrorists.

Yet Hamas didn’t stop at their first claim, they added that this tragedy could jeopardise negotiations in Qatar to arrange a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages. Hamas continue to use false allegations to put more pressure on Israel to give way to their demands, and they have had much success with this incident, prompting international criticism of the Israelis.

The current outline for a ceasefire is said to include the release of just 40 hostages over a period of around six weeks. That would leave 94 hostages in the hands of Hamas for at least another 42 days and grant the terrorists a significant victory.

BBC News did better than many outlets with this report: