AP doubted reliability of Hamas-linked reporter years before Oct. 7, documents show

The Associated Press was told that a photographer it employed in Gaza was connected to Hamas in 2018 and doubted his reliability, years before the news agency cut ties with the freelancer due to controversy about his work during the October 2023 invasion of Israel, according to documents released in a US lawsuit on Tuesday.

The AP has pushed back against the claims, calling the lawsuit “baseless,” saying the correspondence between its staff was mischaracterized, and highlighting that the news agency stopped accepting the photographer’s work shortly into the war. The photographer, Hassan Eslaiah, was targeted and wounded in an Israeli airstrike this week, with the IDF saying he was a Hamas member.

Eslaiah entered Israel during the October 7, 2023, massacre, photographing Gazans, some of them armed, as they stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the hardest-hit communities that day. He also took a picture of Gazans atop a burning tank next to the destroyed Gaza border fence. A video and photos from the scene showed him next to the tank, though no press credentials could be seen on him.

After the attack, pro-Israel advocates suggested that Eslaiah and other photographers working for the international media had had foreknowledge of the Hamas invasion, without providing evidence, causing huge controversy. An image also surfaced showing Eslaiah embracing the late Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar in 2020. The AP denied that the photographers knew about the attack ahead of time, but said it was cutting ties with Eslaiah in November 2023. Eslaiah’s pictures from October 7 were removed from the AP’s distribution feed, though other photographs remain.

In February 2024, a number of survivors of the Hamas attack and the families of victims sued the AP in a US federal court in Florida, accusing the agency of being complicit in the invasion by working with freelancers embedded with terrorists, including Eslaiah. They are being represented by the National Jewish Advocacy Center, which charged the AP with “funding and substantially supporting a terrorist organization” by purchasing images from the October 7 attack.

“AP has long been on notice of their freelancer’s Hamas connections, and chose to ignore those connections,” the lawsuit said. “AP knew, or at the very least should have known, through simple due diligence, that the people they were paying were longstanding Hamas affiliates, propagandists, and full participants in the terrorist attack that they were also documenting.” The lawsuit argued that Eslaiah’s connections to Hamas granted him access to photograph the invasion and other Hamas operations.

After the lawsuit was filed, AP called the case “baseless” and said that none of its freelancers had foreknowledge of the attack.

Filings in the lawsuit released on Tuesday showed that AP staff had been informed of Eslaiah’s Hamas ties in 2018, though, and worried about his reliability.

The two sides waged a legal battle over the release of the documents. Lawyers for the AP opposed their release, saying the materials were confidential, but a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, allowing for the redacted documents’ public release this week.

In 2018, the pro-Israel media watchdog CAMERA questioned the AP about an article on the shooting of a boy in Gaza. The shooting was attributed to Israel, using Eslaiah’s reporting to corroborate the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims and describing Eslaiah as a “local journalist.” CAMERA’s Israel director, Tamar Sternthal, asked the AP staff which outlets Eslaiah worked for, the emails showed.

“I don’t know. I’ll check. I was told he is independent and reliable and not Hamas,” an AP staffer said in response. The AP email addresses in the documents were redacted.

Sternthal responded with information about Eslaiah, including a link to the Electronic Intifada website, saying that Eslaiah was a camera operator with the Hamas-affiliated Quds TV. CAMERA also reviewed Eslaiah’s social media and said that he openly identified with Hamas’s politics, praised terrorism, backed the murder of Israelis and made anti-Jewish statements.

“They have sent an entire file on the journalist we quoted, saying he is from Hamas media. Is this stuff accurate? I thought you said he is independent,” one of the AP staffers said in the internal email chain.

“The most important thing to me is that our reporting is accurate. Hassan is a freelancer, he is active on several platforms and mostly quotes, shares or reposts stuff from different sources,” another staffer said in response, indicating the AP was aware of Hassan’s posts.

“Frankly speaking, many local journalists here don’t pay attention to their language,” they said.

“We shouldn’t describe someone from Al-Quds as being an independent journalist,” another staffer said, adding that the news agency should seek another corroboration for their report. “I just want to shut them up once and for all,” they said of CAMERA.

“I still think we need to be careful. [Redacted] describes this guy as independent and reliable. I’m not sure he is either,” another email said.

CAMERA previously said it had informed the AP about Eslaiah’s Hamas links, but the documents released this week were the first view of the newsroom’s internal response, including the fact that staff doubted Eslaiah’s reliability.

The documents released this week also showed a text message chain from December 2023, after the controversy over Eslaiah’s photographs of the October 7 attack. The messages, from a WhatsApp chat, show AP staff discussing Gaza freelancers. The names, phone numbers and sections of the conversation are redacted.

In the conversation, the AP staff, under apparent stress, debated their use of Gaza photographers. The messages were marked with timestamps indicating they were sent in Israel.

“Until this Oct. 7 issue has been resolved we should not be using any images from” Eslaiah and three other photographers, one message said.

“We cannot use him until this blows over. We just can’t. However much we may think this report is bullshit, this has gone ballistic,” another message said. It was unclear which specific photographer the message referred to.

Another staffer resisted cutting ties with the photographers, saying, “Publicly parting ways with one of the stringers is a bad call.”

“His social media is a mess, we really didn’t have a choice. It’s a good lesson for all of us. Be careful what you post or repost. It will come back and bite you,” a response said.

The AP staff also discussed a report in French media. In that report, Eslaiah said the AP had told him to go to the border on October 7, according to the court filings. Two AP staffers in the text discussion said the claim was not true.

CAMERA had previously shared Eslaiah’s social media posts from October 7. Eslaiah celebrated the Hamas attack, calling it a “beautiful thing,” described terrorists as “warriors” and rockets as “resistance,” and called the victims “settlers.”

In the hours following our expose, new material is still coming to light concerning Gazan freelance journalist Hassan Eslaiah whom both AP & CNN used on Oct. 7.

Here he is pictured with Hamas leader and mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar. https://t.co/S9pXeIGaFq pic.twitter.com/RmEZU5RsM8

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 8, 2023

David Litman, a senior analyst at CAMERA, said, “The internal AP emails show that at least one AP official was alarmed enough by CAMERA’s evidence to question Eslaiah’s ‘independence’ and ‘reliability.'”

“That the AP would still turn to Eslaiah five years later without informing its audience of Eslaiah’s terrorist affiliation raises serious concerns about the agency’s judgment and credibility,” Litman said.

“He effectively participated in the October 7 attack, although he may not have pulled any triggers, and the Associated Press all along has been suggesting that this is somebody who just happened to be there,” said Etan Mark, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “The Associated Press knew before October 7th that this guy was likely a terrorist, but nonetheless continued to pay him.”

The AP downplayed the messages in a statement to The Times of Israel on Thursday. It said claims that the documents showed staff were aware of Eslaiah’s Hamas support, and that AP staff doubted his independence and reliability, were a “mischaracterization.”

“The email exchange is a complaint over Eslaiah being quoted in a brief story. The information attributed to him was confirmed to be accurate,” an AP spokesperson said. “The text messages show a couple of journalists discussing being told to stop purchasing photos from certain freelancers, and their concerns over the impact on the ability to cover major breaking news as a result.

“It’s worth noting that AP stopped accepting photos from Eslaiah a year and a half ago,” the spokesperson said. “AP publishes 5,000 stories every day. When we receive complaints like this one about a witness quoted in an article, we look into them, as we did here. This email exchange shows part of our due diligence. Importantly, we did not confirm that Eslaiah worked for al-Quds.”

The lawsuit against AP included a timeline of Eslaiah’s coverage on October 7. The case said that 30 minutes before the Hamas attack began, at 5:59 a.m., Eslaiah posted on Telegram, “We wake up to the great gifts of God. The spirit has returned, and our blessings have increased.”

Eslaiah began covering the Hamas rocket barrage that preceded the ground assault within half an hour, was inside Israel by 8:29 a.m., and posted a verse from the Quran that said, “And on that day, the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah,” with the hashtag “#AqsaFlood,” Hamas’s name for the attack.

During the attack, Eslaiah posted a video bearing his watermark showing a room full of bloodied dead bodies. The video is still visible on Eslaiah’s Telegram channel. A voice in the video, believed to be Eslaiah’s, said, “God is great. This is the path to Jerusalem,” according to the lawsuit.

Israeli officials also accused Eslaiah of working for Hamas after an Israeli airstrike wounded him on Monday. According to the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service, Eslaiah was a member of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade and was operating “under the guise of a journalist and owner of a press company.” AP’s coverage of the airstrike described Eslaiah as a freelance journalist.

The AP and Reuters were also sued in an Israeli court for their use of photographers on October 7. Reuters stopped distributing Eslaiah’s photos in recent weeks following a campaign by the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting. Reuters described Eslaiah as a “well-known Palestinian journalist” in coverage of this week’s airstrike.

Israel advocates have long accused the international press of cozying up to Hamas in Gaza, concealing freelancers’ links to the terror group, and employing biased journalists in the territory.