Incredible Videos Reveal How Gaza Terror Groups Appears to Be Using Journalists as Human Shields

New videos appear to show how Hamas and other Gaza terrorist groups are launching rockets next to foreign correspondents’ broadcast positions, thus turning reporters into human shields to deter Israeli military counter-strikes on rocket-launchers.

The videos emerged as several reporters said they had been threatened by Hamas for reporting on its placing its military assets next to sensitive sites like mosques and schools.

This live report from France 24 correspondent Gallagher Fenwick was interrupted when a rocket was launched toward Israel from next to his camera position:

“Rockets were just shot right next to where we are standing, so I’m not going to sit here, stand here very long, because usually there is a strike just moments after this occurs,” Fenwick said.

Another video showed Al Jazeera correspondent Nicole Johnston ducking after a rocket was launched near her camera position.

The pro-Israel blog Elder of Ziyon drew readers’ attention to a Facebook post by Israeli media figure Michael Grynszpan who described how Hamas is controlling the message conveyed by the international media:

I met today with a Spanish journalist who just came back from Gaza. We talked about the situation there. He was very friendly. I asked him how comes we never see on television channels reporting from Gaza any Hamas people, no gunmen, no rocket launcher, no policemen.. We only see civilians on these reports, mostly women and children.

He answered me frankly: "It's very simple, we did see Hamas people there launching rockets, they were close to our hotel, but if ever we dared pointing our camera on them they would simply shoot at us and kill us."

Wooh, impressive. Then I asked him "would you mind saying that on camera? I can film you explaining this..."

For some reason I cannot really understand he refused and almost ran away. I guess my camera is as dangerous as Hamas threats...

“So just for you to know, the truth will never appear on the images you see on television,” Grynszpan concluded.

The Jerusalem Post Thursday ran a story detailing how other reporters have been threatened by Hamas, which is operating out of Gaza’s main hospital Shifa. From the Jerusalem Post:

The French newspaper Liberation published an article last week which detailed how Hamas interrogated French-Palestinian journalist Radjaa Abu Dagga and threatened to throw him out of Gaza – all at Shifa. The article was later removed at Abu Dagga’s request.

They interrogated Abu Dagga and insisted that he worked for the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, even though he said he worked for French media and an Algerian radio station. He was instructed to immediately leave Gaza without his papers.

Pro-Palestinian activists and journalists, including Fadi Arouri from Al-Ayyam, reported on Wednesday that RT (formerly Russia Today) correspondent Harry Fear was told to leave Gaza after he tweeted that Hamas fired rockets into Israel from near his hotel.

In another tweet from last week, Fear called Al-Wafa Hospital “the hospital with human shields.”

A reporter for the Huffington Post, Sophia Jones, tweeted on July 20, “The Israeli side of the border with Gaza was briefly open today, but Hamas did not let journalists leave Gaza.”

The Weekly Standard’s Noah Pollak in July pointed out how the New York Times has not published photos of Hamas fighters. He wrote:

It appears the Times is silently but happily complying with a Hamas demand that the only pictures from Gaza are of civilians and never of fighters. The most influential news organization in the world is thus manufacturing an utterly false portrait of the battle—precisely the portrait that Hamas finds most helpful: embattled, victimized Gaza civilians under attack by a cruel Israeli military.

A review of the Times's photography in Gaza reveals a stark contrast in how the two sides are portrayed. Nearly every picture from Israel depicts tanks, soldiers, or attack helicopters. And every picture of Gaza depicts either bloodied civilians, destroyed buildings, overflowing hospitals, or other images of civilian anguish. It is as one-sided and misleading a depiction of the Gaza battle as one can imagine.

That trend is not limited to the New York Times. Other media outlets covering the Gaza conflict have produced no images either of Hamas militants or of rockets being launched in real time even as the videos above show they are being positioned next to reporter live-shot locations.

(H/T: Elder of Ziyon)