An extraordinary reversal of reality has occurred over the past five weeks. International shock over Hamas’s brutal murder of 1,400 innocent Israeli citizens and the kidnapping of 240 others has given way to outrage over Israel’s attempt to defend itself and to ensure such an attack doesn’t happen again.

As Hamas defends itself against the far stronger Israel Defense Forces, the terrorist group, with a big assist from the legacy media and even some world leaders, has managed to portray itself as the victim of its oppressor, the Jewish state. Quickly “forgetting” the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7, the media are trumpeting the narrative that the IDF is indiscriminately shelling Gaza hospitals, schools, and mosques, which they claim is a violation of the rules of war. As commentator Bill Maher put it recently, “When Hamas shoots rockets into Israel, it’s a war. When Israel fires back, it’s a war crime.”

But, just as bank robber Slick Willie Sutton famously said he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is,” Israel is targeting the Shifa Hospital because that’s where the terrorists are. The media know this. In fact, as it turns out, reporters have known Hamas has used one particular hospital in Gaza as a command center for decades.

In a July 2014 article about the Gaza War, the Washington Post reported that Shira Hospital “has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” Rather than appearing as the headline or even in the story’s lede, this stunning revelation came at the end of the eighth paragraph. Two weeks later, Tablet magazine picked up on it and published an exposé on Hamas’s use of the bunkers under the hospital as a main command center and called it “one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war.”

The Tablet article questioned why “the precise location of a large underground bunker equipped with sophisticated communications equipment and housing some part of the leadership of a major terrorist organization beneath a major hospital” did not “qualify as a world-class scoop—the kind that might merit a Pulitzer, or at least a Polk.” Answering their own question, they wrote, “In part, it’s because the location is so un-secret that Hamas regularly meets with reporters there.”

Moreover, Tablet cited a 2006 PBS documentary that showed “gunmen roam[ing] the halls of the hospital, intimidat[ing] the staff, and deny[ing] them access to protected locations within the building—where the camera crew was obviously prohibited from filming .”

Yet, despite the evidence that Hamas has operated out of Shira Hospital since at least 2006, as well as other hospitals, schools, and mosques, journalists covering the current Israeli-Hamas war seem to have developed collective amnesia.

Indeed, the pro-Palestinian propaganda machine has been overwhelming. The Associated Press, taking the lead, interviewed Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia over the weekend, uncritically publishing his claim that the IDF was “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital.” He added, “There is no electricity. Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die.”

CNN hasn’t been much better. Last month, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour interviewed the Palestinian-born Queen Rania of Jordan. Throughout their discussion, the queen used all the right buzzwords: colonization, apartheid, and genocide. Referring to a CNN article about “Israeli children found butchered in an Israeli kibbutz,” Queen Rania said , “[W]hen you read through the story, it's not been independently verified.” Except that it has been verified. Amanpour failed to remind her it was all captured on video.

The queen noted, “This is the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire. So the silence is deafening – and to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit.

“Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s OK to shell them to death?” she added. “I mean, there is a glaring double standard here. It is just shocking to the Arab world.”

Needless to say, the far-Left Amanpour didn’t question the queen’s remarks. To her credit, she did ask why Rania’s husband, King Abdullah, refused to allow any refugees from Gaza into his country.

The media are asking the wrong questions. What country worth its salt wouldn’t retaliate after the mass murder and kidnapping of its citizens? And why should anyone accept a terrorist group’s word as fact?

Here’s what we do know: Hamas’s decision to locate its military operations in (and beneath) hospitals, schools and mosques, its prevention of civilians from leaving the Gaza Strip, and, according to new reports, the group’s alleged shooting of refugees (waving white clothes) as they tried to evacuate the war-torn city, demonstrate its utter disregard for the lives of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian sympathizers would like us to forget that Israelis withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and that Gazans elected Hamas the following year to govern the territory, leaving a terrorist group that is committed to Israel’s destruction to run the show. And, since that time, Hamas has used billions in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians to establish their terror network inside Gaza as a launching pad to wipe Israel off the map.

But, in the end, this is also a propaganda war, and despite the reality on the ground, the Palestinian sympathizers appear to be winning. We must not let them.

Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner, Power Line, and AFNN, and she is a fellow at the Heritage Foundation Academy. She is a past contributor to RedState, Newsmax, the Western Journal, and   Bongino.com . Her articles have appeared on RealClearPolitics, MSN, the Federalist, and many other sites. Please follow Elizabeth on  X  or LinkedIn .