Some of the most harrowing images coming
out of Gaza were filmed by this
freelance journalist, Mariam Dhaka. Not
anymore.
She was with four other journalists.
Some of them snapped this selfie just
hours before the attack. One of them was
even live streaming the scene for the
news agency Reuters. Cameraman Husam al-
Masri was killed along with Muhammad
Salommer who worked for Al Jazzer and
Middle East eye and his colleague Ahmed
Abu Aziz.
The attack was a double tap strike with
one missile hitting first and then you
see another moments later as rescue
crews arrive.
Mariam would often base herself at the
hospital in Han Ununice shooting images
like these of the war's youngest
victims.
The 33-year-old could have left. She
sent her son abroad to safety to stay
with relatives, but chose to remain and
document the destruction. With almost
200 journalists now killed in Gaza, her
sister said she knew she would suffer
the same fate as her colleagues and
friends. Yesterday, she called me and
said, "Hey, sister, I would like to have
coffee with you." She was saying goodbye
to us. I went to her and stayed up late.
I usually go to her everyday. Yesterday
we laughed a lot and she started showing
us memories. She said, "When I die and
when I am martyed," I responded, "Who
will you leave us for?" And then she
said, "There is nothing left. It's done.
Today or tomorrow, I will be martyed."
Her story is a snapshot of the suffering
in Gaza. Her mother unable to get proper
treatment, died from cancer 4 months
ago. She had given a kidney to her
father and now her son is an orphan.
At the White House, it appeared that a
journalist broke the news to President
Trump. This was his reaction.
>> In Gaza that killed 20 people, including
five journalists.
>> When did this happen?
>> This happened overnight today.
>> I didn't know that.
>> Any reaction to this? Are you going to
talk to I don't want to see it?
>> At the same time, we have to end that
whole nightmare. I'm the one that got
the hostages out. I got them out. And in
yet another sign that perhaps only Trump
can influence the actions of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an hour
later, he shared this post on social
media, claiming the hospital strike was
a tragic mishap, saying Israel values
the work of journalists, medical staff,
and all civilians, and that the military
authorities are conducting a thorough
investigation.
International journalists aren't allowed
to independently film inside Gaza
because Israel refuses to allow it.
Today, on the streets of Tel Aviv, there
is little mention of the deaths in Gaza.
Israelis are once again calling on
President Trump to bring home the
remaining hostages. Families of those
being held in Gaza and their supporters
staged nationwide protests. I expect the
Israeli government to immediately accept
the deal that's on the table and to
start returning the our hostages that
are that are dying there in Gaza and to
end the disaster that's going on in
Gaza, to end this war immediately. And I
expect President Trump to do all in his
power to bring our people back home like
he did until now. He has to end this
tragedy. Citing no evidence, Trump has
said in the next two to three weeks
there's going to be a pretty conclusive
ending to the conflict. Everyone here
wants to believe it. But as Israelis
block highways, their military's tanks
are moving closer to the border ahead of
a fresh offensive on Gaza City where air
strikes continued killing dozens
overnight. Amjad Rashid said her
neighbors house was hit while they were
sleeping.
She says she doesn't know how to talk,
what to say, or what to do.
>> She has simply run out of words.
We're now joined by Orin Persico from
the Israeli media watchdog, The Seventh
Eye. I wanted to start by asking you,
how are the killings of journalists in
Gaza covered in the Israeli media?
Well, the Israeli media focuses more not
on the killing, not on the killing of
journalists, but on how what's going on
in Gaza will reflect on Israeli image
abroad and might harden the the pressure
to force Israel to stop the war. The the
the facts on the ground come in only
later, if at all. Uh the focus is this
doesn't look good and what can we do to
make sure that the Israeli narrative is
spread more effectively abroad.
>> And what about the language that we see
in Israeli media? We know that the
Israeli military often call these media
workers terrorists. Is that then echoed
on Israeli media channels as well?
>> Well, it's not a clearcut. You have the
far-right Israeli media. Just yesterday,
the chief commentator there called to
eliminate all journalists in Gaza, which
is insane, of course. But then you have
mainstream media uh and then you you
they do make the difference between
former Alazer workers who are considered
terrorist by the IDF and are called
terrorist by the Israeli media and those
specific uh freelance journalists from
yesterday who work for international uh
respected agencies and it it it was
reported that they were not considered
terrorists and were not targeted. That's
the official line.
that these journalists were not
targeted, that this was what Netanyahu
is is calling um a tragic mishap.
>> Exactly. The Israeli media followed step
by step with IDF spokesperson narrative.
If the IDF spokesperson say, "Look, we
have evidence these are terrorists." The
Israeli media won't bother to make
checks or independent inquiries, they'll
go with that. If the IDF spokesperson
and Netanyahu say this was a mishap or
sorry, it wasn't the aim of the attack,
the media will go along with that as
well.
>> So would you say there's a lot of
selfcensorship when it comes to
reporting the war in Gaza inside Israel?
>> Oh, absolutely. I think most of the
censorship regarding this war is
selfcensorship. You know, we have a
military censorship in Israel that
forces all journalists to get a
clearance before they publish anything
which could be sensitive for the
national security. But the most of the
censorship in Israel is self censorship.
And not just because journalists think
they might get a backlash from the
public. I think a lot of Israeli
journalists don't think they should
publish material about what's going on
in Gaza.
their their own opinion is we should
support the war effort and not really be
journalists.
>> Um, what are Israelis seeing on the
mainstream news channels in Israel from
Gaza these days? Are they seeing
pictures of starvation? Are they seeing
pictures of the the endless suffering of
civilians?
>> The focus is not the suffering. Again,
the focus is the narrative war between
the Hamas propaganda campaign about the
suffering in Gaza. Of course, in every
war you have some people going going to
get hurt. Some other people will be
hungry. That's usual. That's but the
Hamas according to Israeli media
amplifies that and turns it into a
another part of the terror propaganda,
right? And there's a sort of a narrative
conflict between Hamas and Israel
narrative that says we're letting a lot
of humanitarian aid coming in. and you
do see uh you know pictures of like a a
sack of potatoes that nobody wanted on
the side of the street. How could there
be hunger if you see one single sack of
potatoes you don't know exactly where in
the Gaza Strip that nobody has bothered
to pick up? So, uh the the the cracks in
the in the narrative of no hunger at all
are there because the pictures it's hard
to deny them. But Israeli media tends to
um focus on separate incidents sort of
you know either lies or or uh
exaggerations.
The Israeli media focuses on that in
order not to really report about the
tens of thousands of people in in in
severe malnutrition situation. And how
much do Israelis follow local media
channels? And how much does what
Israelis see in the media then reflect
public opinion on the streets?
>> They follow it very much. I mean,
everyone can open the the cell phone and
and and get Channel 4 or the New York
Times or whatever. The the self
censorship is not only from the
journalists. It's all from the public.
The public does not want to know and
does not bother to get out of this dome
of ignorance that the Israeli media has
created. The Israeli public uh opinion
is very much shaped by the Israeli media
and I would say the Israeli media holds
a lot of responsibility to the fact that
most Israelis don't care about what's
going on to the Palestinians living in
Gaza.
>> We know that there are lots of people
out on the streets today. The families
representing the hostages are calling
for this day of action to end the war.
Are we seeing a lot more people out on
the streets than we were a few months
ago? Is this public opinion shifting on
the streets, do you think?
>> Well, the demonstrations have become
larger in recent weeks. They were
already as large as they are today at
the beginning of the war and several
months after that. Uh I'm not sure that
it uh is a demonstration of a major
shift of opinion. Uh the Israeli
anti-Netanyahu camp very much wants to
see this government uh ending and
replaced by a different government. Very
much wants to see the hostages back. But
it doesn't mean that this same anti
Netanyahu camp uh is out in the streets
for uh humanitarian
uh reasons because they are worried
about what's going on to in Gaza to the
Palestinians. They are more worried like
you said about the hostages and uh
Netanyahu himself attracts a lot of
hostility. Opinion polls still show that
a majority of Israeli citizen, Jewish
Israeli citizens don't care about what's
going on in Gaza and don't think that
Israel should provide more humanitarian
aid.
>> Thanks so much OrCo for joining us.
>> Thank you.