The case of the photojournalists who captured images of Hamas's first attacks on Israel continues to make headlines and now Israel has officially joined the conversation. According to parliamentarian Danny Danon, the Jewish State now considers these reporters as enemies since they understand that they were complicit in "crimes against humanity."
It all started after the Honest Reporting site questioned their moral and professional ethics for being there beforehand and taking photographs. The primary media that spread their images has distanced themselves from these reporters. Even CNN "suspended relations" with Hassan Eslaiah, who appeared in a selfie with Yahya Sinwar, leader of the jihadist group in the Gaza Strip.
"Israel's internal security agency announced that they will eliminate all participants in the October 7 massacre. The 'photojournalists' who took part in recording the assault will be added to that list," Danon said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Israel's internal security agency announced that they will eliminate all participants of the October 7 massacre.
The "photojournalists" who took part in recording the assault will be added to that list.
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) November 9, 2023
"They are no different from terrorists"
According to Benjamin Netanyahu's office, "the Gaza photojournalists employed by the world's leading news agencies who captured images of the October 7 Hamas massacre in Gaza border communities, and who appear to have had prior knowledge of the planned attack, were complicit in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics."
Something similar had been suggested by Benny Gantz, former Minister of Defense and member of the war cabinet. "The journalists who knew about the massacre and decided to stand by while the children were massacred are no different from terrorists and should be treated as such," he said at the time.
Honest reporting spoke of four photojournalists who sold their photographs to AP, Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud and Hatem Ali, while Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih sold their photos to Reuters.
"News agencies may claim that these people were just doing their job. Documenting war crimes, unfortunately, may be part of it. But it's not that simple. It is now obvious that Hamas had planned its October 7 attack on Israel for a very long time: its scale, its brutal aims and its massive documentation have been prepared for months, if not years. Everything was taken into account — the deployments, the timing, as well as the use of bodycams and mobile phone videos for sharing the atrocities. Is it conceivable to assume that "journalists" just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists? Or were they part of the plan?" stated the website mentioned above.
