Media Knew Hamas Shared Their Building, Says Israeli Site

According to a popular Israeli site, the media in Gaza knew it shared a building with the Hamas terror group, which the IDF blew up on Saturday.

By United with Israel Staff

On Saturday, the IDF responded to continued rocket attacks from Palestinian terror groups in Gaza with an airstrike that destroyed a high-rise building housing the offices of Associated Press (AP) and Al-Jazeera, a Qatar state media outlet that spreads anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda.

After the strike, the IDF announced that Hamas’ Intelligenice Unit also operated from the building, a contention that is consistent with the terror group’s policy of using human shields, including civilians and journalists.

The IDF warned the building’s owners before the strike and it was evacuated prior to the hit.

“Despite [Israel] giving forewarning, AP reacted with righteous indignation, expressing ‘shock’ and ‘horror’ that ‘the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza,'” posted David Lange, operator of the popular Israellycool site.

“I believe they are lying and absolutely knew Hamas was in the building,” added Lange, citing comments from the building’s owner immediately before the attack and remarks from former AP reporter Matti Friedman who blew the whistle on the agency’s refusal to tell the truth about Hamas in 2014.

In support, Lange quoted Friedman’s 2014 comments: “The AP staff in Gaza City would witness a rocket launch right beside their office, endangering reporters and other civilians nearby—and the AP wouldn’t report it, not even in AP articles about Israeli claims that Hamas was launching rockets from residential areas.”

Friedman continued, “Hamas fighters would burst into the AP’s Gaza bureau and threaten the staff—and the AP wouldn’t report it. . . Cameramen waiting outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City would film the arrival of civilian casualties and then, at a signal from an official, turn off their cameras when wounded and dead fighters came in, helping Hamas maintain the illusion that only civilians were dying. (This too happened; the information comes from multiple sources with firsthand knowledge of these incidents.)”

Friedman also added that AP spokesman Paul Colford “confirmed that armed [terrorists] entered the AP’s Gaza office in the early days of the [2014] war to complain about a photo showing the location of a rocket launch, though he said that Hamas claimed that the men ‘did not represent the group.’

Colman said, “[The AP] does not report many interactions with militias, armies, thugs or governments.”

According to Colman, “These incidents are part of the challenge of getting out the news—and not themselves news.”

These revelations led Lange to conclude, “The AP have no right to call themselves a news organization after this revelation. Not only have they shown they will lie to protect terrorists and demonize Israel, but they have knowingly put their own journalists at risk.”