By:  Lieba Nesis

The New York Times is quaking in its boots after the “HonestReporting” site questioned the unexplained presence of six freelance photographers for the worst massacre in Israeli history on October 7th 2023.  Imagine if September 11th’s Mohamed Atta had been accompanied by six photographers when he went on his murderous rampage. And yet four incriminating names appear on the Associated Press (AP) photo credits from the October 7th Israel-Gaza border breach including: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud and Hatem Ali.  The most problematic of the group is Hassan Eslaiah who appears with Hamas massacre mastermind Yahya Sinwar in an undated recent selfie with Sinwar affectionately kissing him.  Proximity to the reclusive Sinwar along with a kiss from this brute indicates a degree of alarming camaraderie.

Eslaiah, a frequent contributor to CNN, was embedded with Hamas from the beginning of the 6:00 AM attack when they crossed into Israel and set a tank on fire appearing joyful on a live report declaring “all soldiers inside the tank were kidnapped by Hamas’s Qassam brigades.”  He also posted photos of terrorists infiltrating the Kfar Azza fence, and burning a house.  Kfar Azza’s massacre was most notable for its incredible brutality which included beheadings of babies, burning of victims, and capturing 20 hostages.  Itsik Saban from “Israel Hayom” published a November 8th article documenting the October 7th atrocities which included a woman being gang raped and executed along with the sexual abuse of men. Saban said a significant portion of the murders were committed by civilians who crossed the border some who were even non-Gaza residents.

The lead picture of the Saban article was shot by Eslaiah who photographed the terrorists departing Kfar Azza after conducting one of the most brutal slaughters in history.  The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA) warned the AP in 2018 that Hassan was a rabid anti-Semite who “praises terrorists and expresses joy over the murder of innocent and unarmed Israelis.”  To no avail, as they utilized Eslaiah as a source for a 2018 story claiming that Israel was responsible for the death of a 4-year-old in a Gaza border clash.

Since the October 7th atrocities Eslaiah has exulted in referencing the “beautiful thing about storming settlements” the hiding of settlers from the “fear of the warriors of al-Qassam battalions” and the “rocket of resistance directly hitting a building in Ashkelon.”  Despite CNN and the AP’s cognizance of Eslaiah’s premature  knowledge of the terrorist slaughter of October 7th it wasn’t until the “HonestReporting” article that they severed ties on November 9th-more than a month later.  The site CaClubIndia.com goes so far as to claim the 28-year-old Eslaiah who earns $50,000 a year from CNN, abetted Hamas on October 7th by providing Israeli route maps, checkpoint locations and radar station locations due to his CNN Press card which allowed him unfettered access.

Reporter Amit Segal posted a video claiming to show an October 7th Eslaiah on a motorcycle with a grenade in hand- Eslaiah denied holding a grenade but admitted to hitching a motorcycle ride back to Gaza-sounds suspicious. In a recent interview Eslaiah conceded he was “worried and scared” while denying advance knowledge of the attacks or connections to Hamas-despite him being readily available on a dawn Saturday morning to photograph the slaughter with alacrity and precision.  The Israeli government has called “these journalists accomplices in crimes against humanity” with Israeli representative to the United Nations, Danny Danon saying the photojournalists who participated in assault recordings would be put on an elimination list for participating in the raid.

“HonestReporting” which directly called out those for “actively or passively collaborating with Hamas” backtracked a day later as Executive Director Gil Hoffman declared they were “just raising questions” without any hard evidence of direct involvement by journalists.  So why does The New York Times appear terrified as its freelance reporter Yousef Masoud was one of the first to capture a destroyed Israeli tank as it declares he was innocently woken up by rocket fire on October 7th at Khan Younis in southern Gaza and appeared less than an hour and a half later at the breached border where he expertly photographed a burning Israeli tank with presumably dead or kidnapped soldiers nearby.

The scenario of a professional photographer imminently showing up to a crime scene on a weekend with expert equipment and preparation sounds dubious along with his equally implausible claims that he didn’t linger in Israel or photograph abductees or acts of brutality.  His employment at The New York Times continues after they concluded “he was doing what photojournalists do, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded.”  The New York Times, the AP, Reuters and CNN who claim their reporters were not embedded with terrorists nor did they have advance knowledge of the attacks must produce evidence of correspondence via emails in order to clear their name of these horrific accusations.  Masoud’s Twitter account has documented the activities of the “Islamic Jihad” movement over the past years with a proximity and accessibility that raises serious ethical questions.

The New York Times record speaks for itself after rehiring Soliman Hijjy who recently posted a video report on the bombing of Al-Ahli Arab hospital where he falsely attributed the carnage to an Israeli airstrike.  Hijjy has contributed more than 8 separate reports to The Times since October 12th despite praising Hitler as recently as 2018 and extolling Hitler’s “greatness” in 2012.  Alarmed by the biased reporting of The New York Times, United States Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton sent an immediate letter to The Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger inquiring as to how many of his employees were embedded with Hamas? When they discovered they were embedded? How many are currently embedded? And how much funding The New York Times has given to Hamas and its affiliates in Gaza over the past five years?  Instead of The New York Times categorically denying the claims its Deputy General Counsel David McCraw responded that Cotton was falsely parroting “the disinformation harvested from the Internet.”  McCraw followed up with, “no employee of the Times was embedded with Hamas, or had advance knowledge of the attack, or played any role in the savage massacre of that day.”

While perhaps being viewed as semantics its usage of the term “employee” directly leaves open the possibility that freelancers had knowledge of the attack as it’s widely known “freelancers are paid per job and are not considered employees” because they lack employer provided benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans.  The subsequent removal of photographer names by the AP from many of its abhorrent photos is equally suspicious. Despite the protestations of revered news outlets full accountability from Reuters, the AP, CNN and The New York Times documenting when the photographers gave notice of their activities on October 7th, whether they were on actual assignment that day and whether the outlets knew of their close proximity to the perpetrators must be remitted-along with all photos taken. The answers to these questions would help exonerate the newspapers currently under a darkening cloud of suspicion.