International media deny allegations they knew about Hamas attack

PARIS: Major international media outlets have strongly denied that their Gaza photographers had prior knowledge of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, following allegations taken up by the Israeli government.

Denials have been published by US media outlets The New York Times and CNN, as well as global news agencies AP, Reuters and AFP. The controversy started with an online post by HonestReporting, an organisation that highlights media coverage considered unfavourable to Israel.

HonestReporting said the speed with which certain Palestinian photojournalists in Gaza responded to the attack, and their degree of access to the violence, raised “ethical questions”. Its claims were taken up by the Israeli government.

“These journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu´s office said on Thursday on X.Danny Danon, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN and senior lawmaker for Netanyahu´s Likud party, went further.

“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,” he wrote on X.

HonestReporting´s claims were strongly denied by the Western media mentioned in the article. “The Associated Press had no knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks before they happened,” AP said in a statement.

The New York Times called the allegations against its freelance photographer “untrue and outrageous”, and accused HonestReporting of recklessly “putting our journalists on the ground in Israel and Gaza at risk.”