{"id":274668,"date":"2023-10-19T06:10:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T06:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=274668"},"modified":"2023-10-25T19:32:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T19:32:48","slug":"mass-media-reporters-arent-buying-israels-hospital-bombing-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=274668","title":{"rendered":"Mass Media Reporters Aren&#8217;t Buying Israel&#8217;s Hospital Bombing Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Caitlin Johnstone \u2013 Caitlin\u2019s Newsletter Oct 18, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>A huge blast in Gaza has destroyed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-strike-on-the-hospital-in-gaza\">killing hundreds of people<\/a>. The exact death toll is still unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Details of who is responsible for the explosion are being hotly debated by all parties, and this is still a developing story with a lot of details yet to be revealed. But what I\u2019d like to quickly document as things unfold is the highly unusual number of mass media reporters I\u2019ve been seeing who haven\u2019t hesitated to point to Israel as the probable culprit.<\/p>\n<p>After noting that Israel is blaming the blast on a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), MSNBC foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeadlineWH\/status\/1714384506113646736\">quickly pointed out<\/a> that PIJ rockets <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KeithWoodsYT\/status\/1714483285223502162\">don\u2019t tend to do<\/a> that kind of damage, but Israeli missiles do. He also noted that Israel has an extensive history of lying about this sort of thing.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;What we do know for sure is that this appears to be a truly explosive event in what was already a truly explosive situation we are seeing mass protests in the occupied West Bank&#8230;this has the potential to really set things on fire &quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rafsanchez?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@rafsanchez<\/a> w\/ <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NicolleDWallace?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NicolleDWallace<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/05RCVkOG6l\">pic.twitter.com\/05RCVkOG6l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeadlineWH\/status\/1714384506113646736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Israeli military at this point is not providing any evidence to back up its claims that this was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket; they are citing intelligence that they have not yet made public,\u201d Sanchez <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/clips\/2023\/10\/17\/nbcs-sanchez-israel-denies-hamas-claim-it-struck-hospital-but-israel-has-said-incorrect-things-before\/\">said<\/a>. \u201cWe should also say that this kind of death toll is not what you normally associate with Palestinian rockets. These rockets are dangerous, they are deadly, they do not tend to kill hundreds of people in a single strike in the way that Israeli high explosives\u200a\u2014\u200aespecially these bunker buster bombs that are used to target these Hamas tunnels under Gaza City\u200a\u2014\u200ado have the potential to kill hundreds of people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we should say finally that there are instances in the past where the Israeli military has said things in the immediate aftermath of an incident that have turned out not to be true in the long run,\u201d Sanchez added. \u201cAnd the one example I\u2019ll give you is that when the Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military initially said that she was killed by Palestinian gunmen, and it was only months and months later that they admitted that it was likely an Israeli soldier who fired the fatal shot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CNN\u2019s Clarissa Ward said essentially the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will say, just based on seeing these rocket attacks many times over the years, that they don\u2019t usually have an impact like that in terms of the size of the blast, in terms of the scale of the death toll and the scale of the damage,\u201d Ward said. \u201cIt\u2019s also not the first time, it\u2019s important to add, that we have seen the IDF categorically deny something before being forced to kind of do an about-face after an extensive investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rather shocking statements from CNN\u2019s Clarissa Ward, who says PIJ rockets wouldn\u2019t cause this much damage, and notes that the IDF has lied before. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VgofnnkdGk\">pic.twitter.com\/VgofnnkdGk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Left I on the News (@leftiblog) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/leftiblog\/status\/1714434397506822530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 18, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>BBC foreign correspondent Jon Donnison gave basically the same opinion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see what else this could be, really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli air strike, or several air strikes,\u201d Donnison <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kahlissee\/status\/1714399214229188673\">said<\/a> from Jerusalem. \u201cBecause, you know, when we\u2019ve seen rockets being fired out of Gaza, we never see explosions of that scale. We might see half a dozen, maybe a few more people being killed in such rocket attacks, but we\u2019ve never seen anything on the scale of the sort of explosion on the video I was watching earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: AL-AHLI BAPTIST HOSPITAL MASSACRE &#8211; BBC JOURNALIST STATES IT HAD TO BE ISRAEL<\/p>\n<p>BBC&#39;s John Donnison: &quot;It&#39;s hard to see what else this could be, really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli air strike, or several air strikes&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Gxx4evC9DW\">pic.twitter.com\/Gxx4evC9DW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShaykhSulaiman\/status\/1714408128588947764?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s three mass media reporters that I\u2019ve seen just in my random information-gathering meanderings\u200a\u2014\u200anot on their personal social media accounts, but live on air.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s highly unusual to see this degree of skepticism in the western press right off the bat when it goes against the information interests of Israel specifically or the US power alliance more generally. Typically we\u2019ve been seeing the media <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2023\/10\/17\/atrocity-propaganda\/\">uncritically report unverified claims<\/a> about Palestinian militants while expressing rigorous skepticism solely toward any information which might benefit the Palestinian resistance, so there\u2019s clearly something about this particular story which makes mass media reporters remarkably reluctant to push the Israeli narrative.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe they\u2019re getting information in their group chats which has caused them to keep Israel\u2019s claims about the hospital bombing at arm\u2019s length, or maybe they\u2019re just looking at the facts and deciding this narrative is too flimsy to get behind. If it looks like Israel\u2019s version of events will fall apart after investigation, they\u2019re not going to want to stake their reputation and their pride on pushing it with their usual gusto during an Israeli military operation that is facing unusually intense scrutiny from the entire world.<\/p>\n<p>Israel does after all have an <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dancohen3000\/status\/1714468597798514934\">extensive history<\/a> of attacking hospitals and healthcare facilities, including <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/9p18c\">in this current operation<\/a> in Gaza, including apparently bombing this exact same hospital just a few days ago. ReliefWeb, which is run by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, recently <a href=\"https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/occupied-palestinian-territory\/attacks-health-care-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories-12-15-october-2023\">published a report<\/a> on the numerous Israeli strikes that have hit hospitals, ambulances and healthcare workers between October 12 and October 15, and listed among the hospitals hit is the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City\u200a\u2014\u200athe same hospital that was just destroyed a few days later.<\/p>\n<p>Citing \u201cAl Jazeera V and Personal Communication,\u201d ReliefWeb reports the following:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c14 October 2023: In Gaza city city and governorate, Ahli Arab Hospital was hit by Israeli airstrikes, partially damaging two floors and damaging the ultrasound and mammography room. Four people were injured.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Israel: You guys need to evacuate that hospital or you&#39;ll get killed.<\/p>\n<p>Palestinians: We can&#39;t evacuate the hospital, it&#39;s a hospital.<\/p>\n<p>*powerful missile hits hospital*<\/p>\n<p>Israel: &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Israel: &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Israel: It was the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/caitoz\/status\/1714399058343985443?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also probably worth noting that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/17-10-2023-who-statement-on-attack-on-al-ahli-arab-hospital-and-reported-large-scale-casualties\">according to the World Health Organization<\/a> this hospital was one of the twenty hospitals which the IDF had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/10\/15\/1206007295\/hospitals-in-gaza-are-struggling-to-save-people-even-as-the-idf-tells-them-to-ev\">ordered to evacuate<\/a> because of the aggressions it was planning to inflict on that part of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Again, information is still coming in and this developing story could possibly wind up looking very different from what it looks like right now. But if I was an Israel apologist, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d find the current winds in the mass media very encouraging.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Caitlin\u2019s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/subscribe\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Subscribe<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>My work is <a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2021\/05\/24\/my-experiments-with-hacking-capitalism\/\">entirely reader-supported<\/a>, so if you enjoyed this piece <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/about\">here are some options<\/a> where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CF5YLBGD\">Go here<\/a> to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list <a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.substack.com\/\">on Substack<\/a>, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/p\/mass-media-reporters-arent-buying\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For once the mainstream media appear to be doing their job. They are actually calling into question Israel\u2019s version of events at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":274670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,61,58,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274669,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274668\/revisions\/274669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}