Biased Journalism Erases the Hostages

There’s more than one way to erase the hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

There are the angry self-righteous mobs across the United States, Europe and beyond who ripped down posters of the 251 kidnapped children, elderly, women and men. (As of this writing, 94 of the Oct. 7 hostages are still in Gaza, and the Israeli military has confirmed 34 of them are dead.)

Then there are the more genteel journalistic erasures which exact far greater and lasting damage than the bombastic street displays.

The more genteel journalistic erasures exact far greater and lasting damage than the bombastic street displays.

In October 2023, The Los Angeles Times erased half of those then known to be hostages, underreporting: “Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and taking at least 100 hostages into Gaza.” By that time, Israel had already contacted the loved ones of 203 individuals to notify them that their kin were being held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. (The paper later issued a stealth correction due to the intervention of media watch organization CAMERA.)

Last month, after the 251 figure was already known for many long months, a Canton Repository (Ohio) article republished in some two dozen USA Today Network newspapers across North America conjured up an even lower figure than The Los Angeles Times. It misreported that Hamas members “attacked and killed more than 1,100 Israelis, and kidnapped dozens of others including Americans, who still are missing.”

In recent weeks, Variety devoted two flattering reviews to Michael Moore’s anti-Israel propaganda film “From Ground Zero” about the Gaza Strip, without sparing one word for the Oct. 7 massacre or the nearly 100 hostages still held by Hamas and other terror groups after 15 months.

The New York Times had a different approach to erasing hostages. Editors stood by reporters who falsely insisted that an Israeli soccer player’s Jan. 14, 2024 wrist bandage bearing a Star of David and the writing “100 days, 7/10” was “a reference to the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7.” Though the athlete’s accessory was part of a global awareness campaign designed to call attention to the hostages’ first 100 days of horror, The Times dropped the hostages completely from the story.

And then there is the diminishment of the brutal circumstances under which the hostages fight just to survive one more day.

“[P]eople like to keep it quiet and say it didn’t happen. It happened,” former hostage Aviva Siegel told the Associated Press Dec. 29, 2024, commenting on an Israeli Health Ministry report which cited routine sexual assault as part of the inhumane treatment which the hostages endure.

The news agency briefly summarized the Israeli report: “It said the captives – including children – had been subjected to severe abuse such as ‘beatings, isolation, deprivation of food and water, branding, hair-pulling and sexual assault.”

Just days after Aviva Siegel decried the denial of Hamas’ abuse of hostages, AP itself grossly whitewashed Hamas’ depraved treatment of the hostages.

Obscuring the tortuous conditions which Hamas reserves for the hostages, AP’s Tia Goldenberg prevaricated (“Hostages in Gaza endure another winter as their families plead for a ceasefire,” Jan. 8): 

“The hostages often experience the same dire circumstances as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, whether it be food scarcity, the dangers from Israeli bombardments or the winter. The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ attack, has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, many of whom are weathering winter in tents that are barely holding up against the wind, rain and temperature that can drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.” )

While residents of the Gaza Strip are undoubtedly living in extremely difficult circumstances, their conditions in no way match those of the hostages, who are held in total isolation at gunpoint by terrorists who have murdered, raped and mutilated their family members. The hostages are deprived of medical attention and Red Cross visits, along with any communication or visits from their families. They face rape and sexual assault and the constant risk of being murdered by their captors. They are being held in tunnels with no air and are not free to leave or go anywhere. Their captors subject them to torture and psychological abuse, forcing them to watch videos of Oct. 7 atrocities.

A displaced family in Rafah with nothing but a tent and a few personal salvaged items can still enjoy daylight, the stars at night and a hug from a loved one, relative luxuries withheld from the hostages.

In falsely depicting the hostages’ circumstances as indistinguishable from those of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip, AP forces their disappearance into the broader desolate Gaza landscape.

Hamas has buried the hostages deep in its terror tunnels. And biased journalism further entrenches their erasure.

Tamar Sternthal is director of the Israel office of Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.