Media Outlets Accused of Systematically Excluding Hamas from Gaza Hospital Photos

A recent social media post by Eyal Yakoby, dated August 26, 2025, has ignited a debate surrounding media ethics, alleging that major news organizations, including The Associated Press (AP), Anadolu Agency, and The New York Times (NYT), deliberately removed images of Hamas operatives from photos taken inside Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. Yakoby described this as a "massive media scandal" and "deliberate evidence erasure."

The accusation centers on claims that photojournalists working for these outlets in Gaza intentionally omitted Hamas gunmen from their published still images, despite their visible presence in video footage from the same locations and times. An analysis by HonestReporting, a media watchdog, supports this claim, highlighting a "visual analysis" that suggests a systematic exclusion of Hamas operatives from photos, particularly around October 11, 2023, at Al Shifa Hospital.

According to HonestReporting, while video footage from that period showed Hamas forces, some masked or in uniform, managing the arrival of wounded at the hospital, corresponding still photos from Reuters, AP, and NYT photojournalists at the scene focused exclusively on victims and the wounded. This alleged discrepancy raises questions about journalistic impartiality and the portrayal of the conflict.

The Israeli military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure, including hospitals like Shifa, for military purposes, a claim Hamas and Gaza health officials have consistently denied. Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest medical facility, has been the site of multiple Israeli raids, with Israel asserting that Hamas maintains command and control centers within or beneath the hospital complex.

The controversy underscores ongoing concerns about the challenges of reporting from conflict zones and the potential for selective visual representation to influence public perception. Critics argue that such alleged practices could obscure critical facts on the ground and impact the broader understanding of the conflict's dynamics.