Amidst the international outrage that followed the publication of pictures showing apparently malnourished children in Gaza and the widespread use of photos showing Gaza civilians scrambling for aid, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung alleges that some of those photos were staged by a Hamas-affiliated photographer.
In a recent article, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the Gaza-based photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha staged photos depicting the “real suffering of Palestinians” in a manner that is “in favor of Hamas and its propaganda.”
The newspaper showed a picture of Fteiha apparently staging the civilians in the area where the food would be distributed, making it look as if they were desperately waiting in line for the food distribution. However, as other pictures in the series show, the food distribution did not occur until sometime after Fteiha took his pictures.
The article did not deny the acute hunger among parts of the Gaza population; however, it noted that Fteiha, who works for a Turkish agency, regularly posts anti-Israel and antisemitic content on his social media accounts, and that his pictures often support the Hamas narrative regarding the civilian situation and Israel’s conduct in the war.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung article cautioned that such images make accurately assessing the situation difficult, noting that “at least some of the images were presented in a false or misleading context.”
The newspaper interviewed several experts to provide an opinion regarding the reliability of the images and their use to convey an accurate picture of the situation in Gaza.
One of those, Gerhard Paul, professor emeritus of history and photography expert, who has researched images from Israel and Gaza for 25 years and has traveled to the region himself, said, “I assume that many of these images of starving and sick children are simply staged or come from other contexts.”
“These aren’t fakes,” he told the newspaper. “But the people are presented in a certain way or given a misleading caption to mobilize our visual memory and our emotions.”
“The Palestinian side is primarily concerned with emotionalizing Western, pacified societies. And it works brilliantly,” Paul said. “The images also have an additional function: They are intended to overwrite the brutal images of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Many people don’t even remember those images anymore. Hamas is a master at staging images.”
Christopher Resch of Reporters Without Borders cautioned that not all photographers working in Gaza are working for Hamas, and pointed out that “since October 7, the Israeli government has been trying to cast doubt on the credibility of journalists and photographers.”
He also acknowledged that “it’s still probably the case that little gets past Hamas.”
“More context should have been provided for the image,” Resch says of the image of the people waiting for food.
The pictures raise questions regarding the issue of journalistic independence in the Gaza Strip, as Hamas has been known for many years to restrict the coverage coming out of territories it controls, while the IDF has not allowed journalists to enter the Gaza Strip except in a few instances, in which the itinerary has been tightly controlled by the IDF for safety reasons.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry cited the Süddeutsche Zeitung article, along with a parallel article in the German tabloid Bild, as evidence of “fake news,” saying it was an example of “how Hamas uses ‘Pallywood’, staged or selectively framed media, to manipulate global opinion.”
President Isaac Herzog, currently on an official visit to Estonia, used Fteiha’s photo, along with pictures of hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, to illustrate how Hamas is attempting to influence the narrative in its favor.
“The UN is holding hundreds of trucks, almost 800 trucks the UN can distribute and is failing to distribute,” Herzog stated.
“Instead of that, we see a PR campaign like this one revealed in a German newspaper. You see a photographer staging Gaza people to show that they are lacking food. This is staged. We don’t shy away from the humanitarian need to help the people of Gaza, but we ask the world not to fall for the lies.”
Herzog said that those who want to change the situation in Gaza need to “condemn Hamas and say to Hamas, you want to move on? Get the hostages out.”
Canadian Israeli journalist Matti Friedman, who used to work for the Associated Press, shared in 2014 that after Hamas took over control of the Gaza Strip, the AP, along with other news organizations, started censoring their stories according to Hamas instructions.
While the AP later rejected Friedman’s statements, other journalists have also reported that Hamas influences all reporting from within the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the war, former Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Tarek Abu Shaluf, was captured and interrogated by Israeli forces, and explained how the terror groups try to control narrative about the conflict in Gaza.
Abu Shaluf said the PIJ has a mechanism in place to push certain narratives. He also said that international journalists were not only censored, but that some had helped the PIJ to use certain phrases to help their messaging. He told the interrogators that international journalists briefed him and other PIJ operatives to talk about the humanitarian situation in Gaza before interviews, urging them to use certain phrases.
Shaluf said the interviews with foreign media have to be approved by the terror organization before being aired.
This article was originally published by All Israel News.
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