The accusation was of a rare severity. Israel's official account on X, managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on November 9 that AP, CNN, the New York Times and Reuters had journalists embedded with Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre, before deleting its message.
Israel's war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, went so far as to denounce criminal collusion: "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," he declared, reports nationalist media network Arutz Sheva (known as Israel National News in English).
No evidence was found to support these accusations, which were refuted by the major media outlets and by minute-by-minute reconstruction of the events. Through its executive director, Gil Hoffman, Honest Reporting, the group that made the accusations, has since said it was simply "raising questions".
In an article published on November 8, Honest Reporting, an Israeli website that monitors the Western media and relies in particular on photos from the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters news agencies, explained that six journalists who covered the events of October 7 were able to photograph Palestinians passing through the severed fences, as well as the fighting at the border. They are Hatem Ali, Hassan Eslaiah, Mohammed Fayq, Ali Mahmud, Yousef Masoud, Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih.
"What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and the New York Times, notify these outlets?" the site writes.
In the hours that followed, a photograph of Hassan Eslaiah, one of the incriminated photographers, began to circulate. Dating from 2018, it shows him embracing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. In another video, he films himself in front of a burning Israeli tank, without a press jacket, and riding up a road on a motorcycle, holding what appears to be a grenade.
Honest Reporting is an organization dedicated to combating alleged anti-Israel bias in the Western media. In the past, it has denounced several journalists for sharing anti-Semitic messages on social media platforms or for revealing links with Islamist movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas. One article notably led CNN to break off its collaboration with Idris Muktar Ibrahim, a producer who had tweeted that he was "#TeamHitler".
However, this is not a journalistic site, but rather a pro-Israeli advocacy group, which sometimes spreads propaganda, such as the idea that images of Palestinian victims are staged to manipulate international opinion.
The Israeli nationalist right accuses Western media of always siding with Palestine. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israeli army reacted to Honest Reporting's publication by explaining that he has always felt that "Gazan stringers for major western outlets are at best controlled by Hamas or more likely totally part of Hamas propaganda." And he lamented that "So much of what the world knows about Gaza is based on these charlatans." Entry to the enclave is still forbidden to the international press by the Israeli army.
While it is possible that in times of conflict, journalists embedded with the army may have knowledge of military plans, there is no evidence that this was the case on October 7, during the Hamas terrorist attack. The speed with which photographers were able to get to the border is explained by the Gaza Strip's small size: 365 km2, half the size of Spain's capital Madrid.
Julie Pace, head of AP, said that "it was clear that morning from the first launch of missiles from Gaza into Israel that something serious was happening." This is also what Hassan Eslaiah told French newspaper Libération, which was able to reconstruct his morning through his social media posts from an initial video of rocket fire at 6:41 am, to his crossing the border during a Facebook live at 8:27 am, to his arrival on motorcycle at a kibbutz, where the bodies of murdered Israeli civilians already lay, at around 9:30 am.
In a wire story, AP reported that the first shots captured that day by AP freelancer Yousef Masoud were "taken 90 minutes after the attack began," undermining the theory of collusion. Reuters published photos taken by Mohammed Fayq, Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih, taken more than 45 minutes after the announcement that Hamas attackers had crossed the border. The agency confirmed to Libération that the metadata of the first published photographs, taken at 8:29 am, show that nearly two hours elapsed between the first rocket fire and these shots.
The New York Times, which did not publish photos of the journalists quoted that day, defended contributor Yousef Masoud, who immortalized a burning Israeli tank for AP. "He was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded," said the American daily.
AP and CNN have both ended their collaboration with Eslaiah, the photojournalist photographed next to the Hamas leader in an apparently complicit posture. The shot dates from 2018, during a meeting between Hamas and journalists, the photographer told Libération. He himself released it in January 2020 for self-promotional purposes "to prove the authenticity" of his reporting and show his "access to the leaders of various Palestinian factions." "While we have not at this time found reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us, we have decided to suspend all ties with him," said CNN.
For the rest, the four media outlets cited all denied any knowledge of the planned terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7. In a statement, the New York Times called the accusations "untrue and outrageous." It also said it was "gravely concerned" about the threats these allegations pose to freelance war photojournalists, who cover conflict zones at great risk to their lives. At least 40 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7, the highest monthly toll since the Committee to Protect Journalists began recording such deaths in 1992.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.