Associated Press: We ‘Had No Knowledge of Oct. 7 Attacks Before They Happened’

The Associated Press told Breitbart News on Wednesday that it had no foreknowledge of the October 7 terror attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, despite evidence that its photographers seemed to capture terrorists in action in real time.

The pro-Israel media watchdog group HonestReporting.com published an analysis on Wednesday in which it raised ethical questions about the conduct of AP and Reuters photographers from Gaza, who appeared to accompany the Hamas invasion.

HonestReporting.com said:

What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.

HonestReporting cited tweets of one photographer, Hassan Eslaiah, who had posed in front of a disabled Israeli tank without a helmet or flak jacket, as if he knew he would be safe from Hamas terrorists who were killing every civilian in sight.

After the article was published, HonestReporting updated its article to note that Eslaiah had once posed for a selfie with Yahya Sinwar, the Gaza-based leader of Hamas.

And here is footage of Eslaiah after he crossed into Israel and took photos of a burning Israeli tank. He then captured infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza.

Note that he is not identifiable as a member of the press. But AP & CNN deemed it acceptable to use his services. pic.twitter.com/fA0VI2df2i

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 8, 2023

The Associated Press responded to a Breitbart News media query with the following statement:

The Associated Press had no knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks before they happened.

The role of the AP is to gather information on breaking news events around the world, wherever they happen, even when those events are horrific and cause mass casualties.

AP uses images taken by freelancers around the world, including in Gaza.

Reuters had not responded by the time of this article’s publication.

News agencies have often faced ethical problems in covering terrorist groups at war with Israel. Hamas, a terrorist group, does not permit dissent and will not allow reporters or photographers into Gaza who do not reflect the group’s message.

At times, photographers have doctored images to suit the propaganda needs of terror groups. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Reuters was forced to fire a photographer after he was caught digitally altering an image of an Israeli airstrike.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.