What happens when a high-profile, vehemently anti-Israel, self-described photojournalist from Gaza admits that Hamas controls the discourse and narratives out of Gaza? What happens when he confirms that journalists who write something other than what Hamas wanted could “disappear behind the sun?” Or that journalists usually “lower the camera” when Gazans exiting ambulances criticize Hamas?
Apparently, nothing. And that is the story.
The only explanation for why the mainstream media left such a significant story untouched is that it indicts those who would otherwise—in the name of good and responsible journalism—report on it.
In a Sept. 3 interview with Ahmad Biqawi, media personality Motaz Aizaza covered several topics. But it was his admission that Hamas controls the journalistic discourse out of Gaza that was so newsworthy. Azaiza revealed how Hamas runs a WhatsApp group chat, dubbed “SMART,” that includes every journalist in Gaza. The Rafah crossing media director serves as its administrator.
Historian and novelist Simon Sebag Montefiore aptly called the revelation a bombshell.
The media’s deafening silence on Azaiza’s explosive disclosure is particularly shocking given the photojournalist’s high profile in the Western press corps. Despite his short tenure as a Hamas-Israel war photojournalist, Azaiza dazzled the Western media and even gained an audience with American toddlers, appearing on a since-deleted video with children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel.
The New York Times, for its part, fell hook, line and sinker for Azaiza, featuring or citing him at least a dozen times, but oddly not since his bombshell revelations surfaced.
In November 2023, Azaiza starred as one of three profiled Palestinian journalists, described as “not neutral observers” and “trapped in the besieged enclave.” The paper of record acknowledged that “some even accuse them of being propagandists for Hamas.”
Almost three years later, Azaiza effectively outed all journalists in Gaza as Hamas propagandists, and the Times has fallen silent.
In a five-and-a-half-minute Times video in February 2024, Azaiza narrated, “We showed you the reality … I did this for Gaza, to show the world without any filters, without any lies.”(emphasis added)
Thereafter, the video featured a caption: “His daily, unfiltered coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza has drawn millions of followers.” (With 14.5 million Instagram followers, Azaiza’s audience is larger than the Jewish populations in Israel and the United States combined.)
The media darling was a 2024 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and appeared that year on TIME’s listof the most 100 influential people. The magazine maintained that Azaiza offered a glimpse into Gaza when the international press “ha[d] been all but barred from accessing the Strip.”
In the bombshell interview, Azaiza admitted to having been a Hamas supporter, having friends in Hamas and supporting the killing of Israelis. He fled the Strip for Qatar after four months of the Israel-Hamas war. In Doha, he photographed with now-deceased Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, but asked Haniyeh’s office not to publish the image.
He also referred to abducted Israeli soldiers as dogs and told Biqawi he got goosebumps during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. He said he felt happy, and he filmed Gazans hitting and spitting on the kidnapped “settlers,” but didn’t publish the videos so as not to put the lynch mob participants at risk. Azaiza said that he did not participate in abusing the hostages because he feared Israeli revenge.
While Azaiza’s dramatic admissions garnered tens of thousands of impressions on social media, there has been near radio silence in the mainstream media. Jewish publications, The New York Post and Fox News were the outliers that covered the story.
Former Associated Press reporter Matti Friedman wrote: “Every sentient journalist here knows these are the sources of news in Gaza, and have been since the Hamas takeover 19 years ago. This is obviously a major story, but Western editors can’t cover it honestly because they’ve all played ball and are thus implicated themselves.”
Concerned news consumers from around the world, including Denmark, Germany and France, are questioning news organizations’ failure to report on Azaiza’s revelations.
Azaiza’s candid disclosures about Hamas’s control of Gaza-based journalists call into question every piece of news reported out of the coastal enclave. The media’s resounding silence only further incriminates the completely broken jouirnalistic landscape.
