It should be no shock to anyone on earth that Israel created a special military unit tasked with hunting down every Hamas terrorist that perpetuated the events of October 7, 2023. The United States sent Seal Team Six after Osama bin Laden, and Israel has similar stakes involved here. That makes sense, and I wish them all the best in these endeavors. 

What's shocking to some people is that Israel has indicated it will go after everyone involved. Daniel Cohen of Newsweek reports, "Israeli Knesset Minister Danny Danon reports Israel's internal security agency will eliminate *ALL* participants of the October 7 Hamas massacre of Jews…including the photographers who documented the attack."

Journalists Embedded With Hamas?

Why this harsh stance? It appears that journalists with several Western outlets had advance notice of the October 7th attacks and notified no one. And then they stood idly by, snapping pictures and videos of the brutality that unfolded. Israel sees this as aiding and abetting Hamas, and it's hard to blame them.

We learned this from the group at Honest Reporting. After analyzing the reporting from several news outlets with journalists in that region, Honest Reporting asked:

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? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.

By themselves, these are just questions. But there's hard evidence, too. Hassan Eslaiah, an AP photojournalist, photographed himself next to freshly burning Israeli tanks, documenting the acts of Hamas as they moved into Israel. He also had pictures of himself getting a kiss on the cheek from "Hamas leader and mastermind of the October 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar."

Live-Streaming Terrorist Attacks.

There were other journalists and examples, too. Some of these "journalists" got pictures of Israelis being lynched and murdered, crossing into Israel across borders, and attacking various Israeli defense points. They did this as the events unfolded - meanwhile, it took hours for Israel to mobilize itself to respond to the threat.

It's worth repeating, then, how did so many journalists get into the right place and at the right time? We know Hamas planned this attack for years. And we know that Hamas has often shacked up in buildings with the Western press.

AP Shacks Up With Hamas

In 2021, Israel bombed a high-rise building in Gaza that killed a senior Hamas leader. Hamas operated out of that building with senior leadership and had supplies there. Also in that building was the Associated Press. The AP claimed it knew nothing about Hamas operating in the building.

It stretched credulity at the time that a supposed journalistic outfit in Gaza wouldn't even know what was happening in its own building. If you're in a war zone and don't even know your neighbors, how much can we trust your reporting?

And now here we are again, some of the same organizations that lived in the same buildings with Hamas were "perfectly placed" to watch Hamas commit atrocities. It makes sense why Israel would be mad. These supposed neutral observers chose to allow and document a terrorist attack on innocent civilians instead of trying to warn and prevent it.

News Networks Pivot For Safety

For all its denials, the AP decided to "cut ties" with Hassan Eslaiah. However, they assure everyone it has nothing to do with his reporting. CNN also followed suit with this, with the same language. This part isn't that surprising. As I've written several times over the last few weeks, the press has hired multiple antisemitic journalists in Gaza, including people who praise Hitler.

Forget neutrality. How hard is it for these news organizations to hire someone who doesn't hate Jews? You'd think that'd be a layup, but somehow, they keep finding themselves in the arms of people praising Hamas, Hitler, or frequently both.

Israel's Hard Task Ahead.

That brings us back to Israel's decision to go after everyone. It's one thing for journalists to protect their sources. It's another thing to use your journalistic badge to aid one side. We know in the past that "Gaza journalists" have snitched on Palestinian peace activists, turning the peaceful people over to Hamas.

But this is the next level. Journalists were allegedly embedded with Hamas, documenting the tragedy unfolding and doing nothing to help prevent it from happening. There's no speaking truth to power here, recording history, or being neutral. This is, if accurate, flat-out siding with evil itself.

The atrocities of Hamas are easily proven because Hamas documented what happened themselves. We have the GoPro and cellphone footage. We knew this without the journalists. What we know now is that it appears Hamas had journalistic helpers along the way.

The rapid backpedaling by some news organizations also seems to give credence to the accusations. They understand what they've done. And now Israel has to clean up the mess. It's a good thing there's a special military unit for that.