It is a dynamic that would have likely been unthinkable in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ massacres in Israel 18 months ago. Hamas, a proudly genocidal terrorist group seeking the violent destruction of the Jewish State, showed its gruesome face to the world with its recorded atrocities against Israeli civilians.

But a year-and-a-half later, claims from Hamas and its media ally, Al Jazeera, are widely treated as being de facto credible by many news media outlets, while Israeli statements are treated with heavy suspicion (and that is, if Israel’s positions are even acknowledged at all).

This practice was on display following the Israeli targeted killing of Hussam Shabat, a Gazan who worked for Al Jazeera, the news agency owned and operated by the Kingdom of Qatar and which is a patron of the Hamas terrorist group.

Multiple news reports covering Shabat’s death either downplayed or otherwise completely ignored that Israel maintains that he was not an innocent reporter, but a combatant with Hamas.

In a March 24 broadcast for CityNews, reporter Erica Natividad stated that he “was among two journalists killed in Israeli strikes, according to medics,” quoting one Gazan as saying that Israel was “targeting our colleague.”

No mention was made whatsoever of Israeli assertions that Shabat was a member of the Hamas terrorist regime.

The same day, CBC News published an article, originally written by the Thomson Reuters newswire. While that report did mention Israel’s statements, it portrayed them as highly suspect, while Palestinian claims were treated matter-of-factly.

The report said that “two local journalists,” naming Shabat and another, were killed in the Israeli strike, later adding that Israel “claimed in a statement” that he was a sniper with Hamas, putting scare quotes around Israel saying he “posed” as a journalist for Al Jazeera, adding that “the only evidence the Israeli military provided” was a document purportedly showing his affiliations.

While it is not within the abilities of Thomson Reuters’ or CBC News’ role to evaluate these claims, it is noteworthy that Shabat’s role as a journalist is taken as a given, while the article dripped with skepticism on claims that he was involved with Hamas. Given that the number of so-called ‘journalists’ killed in Gaza has been widely used by anti-Israel activists, and found to be largely inaccurate, it should not be treated as an unassailable truth that Shabat was innocent.

A CTV News article published the same day, from Agence France-Presse (AFP), quoted Al Jazeera as saying that he was a journalist, treating the outlet’s claim as de facto truth, calling him a journalist in its headline. Like CityNews, not a word was provided explaining to readers, informing them that according to Israel, he was a sniper for the Palestinian terrorist group, as if those accusations were too ludicrous to even mention.

The same article was republished in French by La Presse, whose headline blared “Al Jazeera journalist killed by Israel, operations continued in Rafah,” similarly treating allegations by Palestinians in Gaza as being inherently credible, while Israeli statements are simply ignored as if they do not exist at all.

Journalism is by nature investigative, while stenography is simply writing down what was said. Three of these reports failed to uphold even this low standard, failing to even mention Israeli accusations regarding Hussam Shabat, while the fourth article, while acknowledging Israeli allegations, used scare quotes to downplay the credibility of statements from the Jewish State.

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