VIDEO. War on information: journalists targeted, accused of being linked to Hamas

More than 200 journalists have lost their lives in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. If the Israeli army’s strikes against some of these reporters outrage the international community, some profiles sometimes raise questions. On the morning of the attack carried out by Hamas, the presence of several Gazan journalists who took photos of the attacks raised some questions. Had they been warned in advance? Had they coordinated with Hamas? This is what Honest Reporting, an Israeli NGO whose mission is to “denounce anti-Israeli prejudices in Western media,” seeks to establish.

One of these journalists in particular caught the attention of the NGO, explains Simon Plosker, its editorial director, “because he was at the scene of many key events that day. He wasn’t wearing a press vest, so there was no way to identify him as a photojournalist or reporter, but he was there. He was filming himself in front of gruesome crime scenes.” Hassan Eslaiah is in fact one of those who documented the attack virtually live on his Telegram feed, as close as possible to the attackers. Simon Plosker reports images of himself on the back of a motorcycle, holding what could be a grenade. “He was a guy who appeared to be a photojournalist by day and potentially was a terrorist by night. Either way, he was clearly a Hamas sympathizer,” he concludes. Honest Reporting unearthed a photo on social networks dating from 2018 which seems to corroborate these statements: we see Hassan Eslaiah kissed by the man who is considered the mastermind of October 7: Yahya Sinwar, then influential leader of Hamas (killed in an Israeli military operation in October 2024).

After the publication of this compromising photo, the agencies working with the journalist, AP and CNN, immediately ceased all collaboration with him. For its part, the newspaper Libération, Who investigating the photojournalists involved, contacted him by message, with these questions: “When did you learn of the start of the attack?” “Where were you? “Were you aware?” Hassan Eslaiah replies that he discovered the rocket fire in the morning, while he was at home. He attaches a photo taken with his iPhone, timestamped at 7:23 a.m., Gaza time, “which shows that, an hour after the start of the attack, he was on top of a building in Khan Yunis, and not accompanying the Hamas fighters,” details Jacques Pezet, from the Check News service of Libération. Other elements also made it possible to establish that it is not him who is on the back of a motorcycle, a grenade in his hand, in the images mentioned by Simon Plosker.

There remains this famous photo alongside Yahya Sinwar… Rola Tarsissi, journalist at “Complément d’enquête”, had precisely questioned him after the Honest Reporting investigation. Hassan Eslaiah, who says, through his work, “in connection with all factions in Gaza”, his claims to have published this photo “out of pride, like any journalist who is with a boss. Just like [il aurait] publié [ses] photos with Netanyahu. But why is the leader of Hamas kissing him?

“He was the one who followed me and knew my work, replies the journalist. (…) When I introduced myself and wanted to take a selfie photo, he said ‘Come on, I’ll kiss you’. Foreign journalists all took photos with him that day. There are some who publish, and others who keep the photos as souvenirs. I publish everything.” It’s probably this photo “quite surprising for a journalist” et showing at a minimum “a proximity between the two men”, believes Jacques Pezet, which decided the two press agencies to cease their collaboration with Hassan Eslaiah.

A year ago, the photographer was finally killed by an Israeli army strike targeting the hospital where he was being treated after being targeted and seriously injured. The IDF then released a video to justify its elimination, claiming that “Hassan Eslaiah was not a journalist. He was a terrorist with a camera.” The video contains a document which would prove his membership in Hamas – which he always denied during his lifetime. According to Jacques Pezet, it is“a list in which his name actually appears [ainsi que la mention] ‘cameraman ; service : médias'”, but what exactly does it correspond to? Its authenticity is questioned by the Gazan journalists that “Complément d’enquément” was able to question, and their colleague from Libération is not more convinced: “We are still faced with an army which wants to justify the death of someone who is presented everywhere else as a journalist… We still do not know to what extent he was or was not active with Hamas.”

Excerpt from “Middle East: the war against information“, to see in “Complementary investigation” on June 4, 2026.

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