The New York Times, ever faithful to its anti-Israel animus, reported on the stampede on February 29 in northern Gaza by doubting every part of the IDF account, and credulously accepting, instead, the account put out by Hamas and its supporters. More on this double standard can be found here: “The evidence to the “massacre” that the @NYTimes believes,” Elder of Ziyon, March 1, 2024:
The New York Times sifts through the evidence of the stampede in northern Gaza yesterday. As usual, it shows skepticism for anything the IDF says and implicit trust in whatever Gaza “witnesses” say.
The crucial question is whether the IDF shot at people waiting for humanitarian aid. The Times isn’t convinced by the IDF drone video:
The drone video, which does not include audio, was edited by the Israeli military with multiple clips spliced together, leaving out a key moment before many in the crowd start running away from the trucks, with some people crawling behind walls, appearing to take cover.
After a cut in the drone video, at least a dozen bodies are visible on the ground at the scene; it is not clear whether the people are injured or dead. A small number of people may have been struck by aid trucks during the panic, and two Israeli military vehicles are also visible at the scene.
The New York Times wants its readers to be skeptical of the IDF report, suggesting that it “edited” the drone video to deliberately keep out views of the Israeli gunfire supposedly being directed at Palestinians.
And the Times reports, without any evidence, that only “a small number of people may have been struck by aid trucks.” Why should we believe that only a “small number” were struck by aid trucks? And what about those who were crushed by their fellows, who pushed them down and then fell on top of them, in the frantic stampede to snatch food aid from the 30 trucks in the convoy? We know now that there were thousands of Gazans present, that there was a wild stampede, with people in front being crushed — pushed down, stomped on, smothered by other bodies of those coming from behind and toppling onto those in front — and that a total of 124 people (not 104 as first reported) people died at the site of the stampede. But the Times wants to blame the IDF for shooting many of those who died, and so it slyly suggests that the IDF has edited its drone video so that the sounds of its gunfire can’t be heard.
But another video, from propaganda channel Al Jazeera, is described without any skepticism:
A separate video released by Al Jazeera of the crowd near the aid convoy captures the sound of gunfire and shows multiple tracer rounds, originating from the southwest where an Israeli military base is located.
That video is also heavily edited, but the NYT doesn’t mention that.
But most importantly is that the Al Jazeera video shows that all the tracer rounds visible were shot well above the heads of any people.
Al Jazeera captions the video as “The first moments of the occupation shooting towards Palestinians waiting for aid” when the video shows that they are clearly not shooting at them.
The video posted by Al Jazeera is given a caption that claims the very opposite of what that video shows. The AJ claims it shows “the occupation” (that is, the IDF) shooting at “Palestinians waiting for aid.” That’s not what the video shows. It shows the IDF shooting up into the sky, far above the heads of those in the vast crowd, what are obviously meant as warning shots to those approaching the IDF vehicles, telling them to stay away.
People do duck when they hear the gunshots, but there is no indication of anyone shot or injured.
اللحظات الأولى لإطلاق الاحتلال النار باتجاه فلسطينيين ينتظرون وصول المساعدات في شارع الرشيد غربي #غزة#حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/7VOHuZ2ygI
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) February 29, 2024
The AJ video doesn’t refute the IDF account that they first fired warning shots at a crowd that approached them away from the convoy. It confirms it.
But the NYT also has “witnesses.“
Around 100 people with gunshot wounds were brought to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City, according to its director, Husam Abu Safiya. The hospital had also received 12 bodies, he said. Another witness at the hospital, Hussam Shabat, 22, a journalist, said all the casualties he had seen had bullet wounds, including to the chest, jaw and shoulder.
Are Husam Abu Safiya and Hussam Shabat credible witnesses, as the New York Times seems to think? The paper’s editors apparently did no checking on the background of either “witness.”
Husam Abu Safiya has been interviewed numerous times during the war, consistently attacking Israel. In December he told Al Jazeera that the IDF placed weapons in the hospital, photographed them, and then arrested innocent people. He told other outlets that “The occupation shoots anyone who passes in the streets or looks through the windows.”
Do you believe that the IDF plants weapons in the hospital where Abu Safiya works, photographs them, and arrests people whom it claims are Hamas operatives who have used the hospital as their base? Has Israel ever done such a thing? Are the wicked Israelis simply trying to fabricate a reason for shutting down hospitals in Gaza, so that more innocent civilians will die? And that’s not the only absurd tale from Husam abu Safiya. He depicts IDF soldiers as mad dog killers, shooting to kill “anyone who passes in the streets or looks through the windows.” Then why do these killers spend so much effort warning civilians in Gaza to leave areas, or buildings, that the IDF is about to target? Why would they drop 14 million leaflets, send millions of messages on the Internet, and make 72,000 phone calls, to warn Gazans to stay away? Doesn’t Husam Abu Safiya strike you not just as unreliable, but as an outright liar, when it comes to his accusations about IDF soldiers “planting weapons” in hospitals and in shooting anything that moves?
FYI says
Be wary of news reportage and tv images!
Things might not be as they appear.
Remember the bawling muslimas with the hamas dolls?
They didn’t know they were crying over DOLLS?
FAKE!
Some of these Photojournalists have a hablt of setting the agenda:if i was one i would make sure to show some disabled folk in a wheelchair[ideally knocked over}, a doll{ideally ragged},a child covered in soot.
You would bawl.
It is designed to manipulate your emotions.Just question CRITICALLY what you are shown.
The media would never lie to us?Surely not?Of course they do- ALL THE TIME.
But they have biases and agendas :so just THINK about what you seeing/shown.
Is ii TRUE or falsified imagerY?They have AI technology that can invent people that don’t exist.
Question what you see.
This also works with ads:people want a product not necesarily an agenda.Turn the sound off and watch what they are selling.Look at the background…
Kuffar says
The NYT said ‘some people did something…’
James Lincoln says
Liberal professionals – the “intelligentsia” – still consider the New York Times to be the “gold standard” of newspapers.
They refuse to believe that they are being lied to.
brenrod says
It’s called taqiyya, AJ and NYT use local “reporters” like the UN uses the UNRWA, they know it’s lies when they print it.
Alex Benziger says
Hamas fired more than 500 rockets on Israel on 7th October, nobody talks about the aggression but accusing only Israel.
Spiro says
New York Times
Has it ever been honest with it reporting
Poetcomic1 says
All the MSM outlets give casualty figures DIRECT from Hamas authority without even the usual caveat of ‘figures have not been verified’. This is a WAR not an ‘incursion’ and
The Gazan casualty figures are even if you believe them are 30,000 of which Israel conservatively estimates 10,000 are Hamas soldiers. In a Gazan population of almost 2 million being used as human shields, dense population centers riddled with armaments, rockets and tunnels….FOR SUCH DENSE URBAN FIGHTING AGAINST ENEMY USING HUMAN SHIELDS THE CASUALTIES ARE VERY LOW. Starvation and misery
is entirely the fault of Hamas who even now steal from their own people.