Reuters and AP Sued by Five Hamas Victims’ Families For Being Complicit

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Five Hamas terror victims’ families filed a lawsuit against Reuters and the AP, arguing that “journalists and photographers” working for the new agencies accompanied Hamas terrorists and documented their atrocities.

The parents of May Naim, Lotan Abir, Guy Gabriel, Shalev Madmoni and Shani Louk, who were all tragically murdered on October 7th, filed the suit in the Jerusalem District Court, seeking 25 million shekel ($6.5 million) in damages for their pain and suffering, and other losses resulting from the murder of their children.

The “’journalists’ were sent by these agencies to broadcast live from the massacre on the news websites they own,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit filed by the victims’ parents alleges that five photojournalists, Hassan Abdel Fattah Eslaiah, Hatem Ali, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa, Ashraf Amra, and Ali Mahmoud, who filed photographs in real time of the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas terrorists, were a component of the attacks themselves, and were not actual journalists.

Ynet said that, “… some of those “journalists”, who broadcast the events, identify with Hamas and took an active part in the massacre on October 7th. It is also claimed that they infiltrated into the territory of the State of Israel from the Gaza Strip, alongside Hamas terrorists, as joint operatives, and were complicit in serious crimes and injustices.”

The lawsuit added: “ The defendants who sent those dubious ‘journalists’ bear direct liability for their actions … no legal excuse, such as the public’s right to know, can justify a situation in which a journalist can or would document a serious crime in real time, for example, the kidnapping of an elderly woman from her home.

“It is difficult to imagine that those local ‘journalists’ did not know about the invasion and the horrible massacre ahead of time, since a significant part of their ‘reports’ and photographs were from the first minutes of the massacre.”

The suit says that the “journalists” were either aware in advance that a mass invasion and terror attack was about to be staged or, being present from the outset of the attacks, were culpable for doing nothing to stop it, including failing to warn Israeli authorities.

The suit also says that these photographers “waited by the border fence before it was breached in dozens of different locations at the same time,” and “crossed the border fence together with the Hamas terrorists, accompanied them on their heels in the execution of the atrocities, calmly participated, cheered, encouraged and praised the atrocities and transferred their ‘journalistic products’ to the respondents for a fee in order to be distributed in media networks.”

The suit pointed out that Eslaiah, who worked for AP, has close links to Hamas, and took a selfie with October 7th mastermind Yihye Sinwar in 2020, with Sinwar kissing him on the cheek.

Eslaiah photographed an Israeli tank going up in flames, which was published by the AP. At the same time Eslaiah published a selfie video on his widely followed Telegram channel where he tells of how he witnessed all the soldiers in the tank being taken captive into Gaza.

The suit says Eslaiah was filmed riding on a motorbike holding his camera in one hand and a grenade in the other. It adds that he photographed the invasion of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where dozens of Israelis were murdered and kidnapped, and the photos were published by AP “almost in real time.”

AP fired Eslaiah in November after evidence of his links to Hamas surfaced.

The lawsuit also says that Hatem Ali, also employed by AP, photographed atrocities committed by Hamas including a picture of 85-year old Yaffa Adar being abducted.

Ali also photographed Yarden Bibas being abducted from Kfar Aza, which was published by AP as well. Yarden’s wife, 4-year old son, and 9-month old baby boy were all kidnapped as well.

Ali is still employed by AP, according to the lawsuit.