The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, ongoing since October 2023, has reached yet another tragic milestone. Over the weekend, soldiers of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) discovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages, who had been murdered by Hamas in the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The hostages were identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an American-Israeli dual citizen; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 27, as reported by The Times of Israel. Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi, Lobanov, Sarusi, and Danino, an off-duty non-commissioned officer, were abducted from the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, while Gat was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri.
Their bodies were found with multiple gunshot wounds, according to Israel’s Health Ministry, citing an examination conducted by the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. The ministry reported that the hostages were killed between 48 to 72 hours prior to their autopsy, meaning between Thursday and Friday morning. IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stated that the ‘six individuals were brutally murdered’ by Hamas shortly before the troops arrived—possibly only a day or two before they were discovered.
The bodies were discovered in a tunnel where, in the preceding days, another hostage had been successfully freed by the IDF. According to IDF, there had been no combat in the tunnel prior to the discovery of the deceased hostages.
The significance of the tragic event is reflected in the public’s response: following the tragic news, protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv, and a general strike was called across the country on Monday, disrupting everything from air travel to universities and shopping centres. The protesters and Israeli opposition politicians are demanding a ceasefire from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. Netanyahu, on the other hand, declared that Israel would hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages in ‘cold blood’ and blamed the militant group for the stalled negotiations, stating, ‘whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.’
Curiously (or perhaps not so much), the US left-leaning mainstream media do not seem to fully acknowledge the brutal murder of the hostages. As observed by many on the conservative side on social media, much of the legacy media—a phrase often used by Elon Musk to describe conventional media outlets—, which has largely conveyed a pro-Palestinian narrative, refrained from explicitly naming Hamas as the perpetrators in their reports on the murders. This was evident in the initial headlines,
where phrases such as ‘found dead’ or ‘died’ were commonly used to describe the killing of the hostages by Hamas
—a choice made by outlets like The Washington Post, CBS News, CNN, and even the British BBC. In contrast, The Firstpost for example used the phrase ‘killed by Hamas’ in quotes, referring to the IDF’s assertion that Hamas was responsible for the killings.
It appears that Hamas is winning the ‘propaganda war’ against Israel, and this is largely due to reactions in the mainstream media, such as the ones we are witnessing now.
Guy Aviad, a former IDF history department official and author of The Politics of Terror—An Essential Hamas Lexicon, told The Times of Israel that Hamas employs highly skilled media professionals, many of whom were educated in the West, to achieve their goal of dominating the communication space. Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned news network, also plays a crucial role in Hamas’s media strategy, given its longstanding ties to the organisation and its frequent role as a platform for Hamas’s messages. Mainstream media outlets like CNN, BBC, and others sometimes rely on Al Jazeera’s reporting on the conflict in Gaza.
However, this level of denial of reality—likely deliberate—is not unique to the mainstream media in the context of the Israeli-Hamas conflict. One does not need to look far back in time to find a glaring example. The assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump in July was initially reported by CNN as if Trump had merely ‘fallen’ at a rally. This serves as a perfect illustration of how narratives can be swiftly altered to suit particular agendas. For instance, Joe Biden was portrayed as a ‘perfectly healthy president’ only to be depicted as a ‘deranged old man’ unfit for another term within weeks. Simultaneously, Kamala Harris transitioned from being labelled the ‘most rejected vice president’ to the ‘best Democratic nominee’ to defeat Donald Trump according to articles in the mainstream media.
It is becoming ever more obvious that the mainstream media can change its opinions and the reality it presents to its readers overnight, whenever it serves the interests they promote. What is particularly shocking in this instance is that we are dealing with the lives of people who have been victims of a terrorist organization that the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have vowed to destroy.
In this context, the denial of reality is almost tantamount to complicity in the crime.
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