A rule of thumb in many corners of the Canadian news media is that when claims emanate from Gaza, they are treated as being de facto true, whereas Israeli statements – if mentioned at all – are treated with heavy suspicion.

A January 13 article by CBC News Producer Yasmine Hassan entitled: “As temperatures dropped in Gaza, this family took refuge in a hole 1.5 metres under their tent,” exemplified this practice. In her article, Hassan wrote how, according to a local doctor, eight babies have died of hypothermia in recent weeks in the Gaza Strip.

Although Hassan did acknowledge that even at nighttime, temperatures in Gaza fall to only between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius – hardly sub-zero – these allegations were not just treated as being de facto true; they form the basis of her entire article.

Hamas, the genocidal Palestinian terrorist group which launched the current war against Israel with its massacres on October 7, 2023, was not mentioned a single time, either for starting the war, or by deliberately perpetuating it by adamantly refusing to lower its weapons and surrender, and free all the hostages kidnapped 15 months earlier.

Instead, readers were told, it is Israel’s fault that Gazans are said to be suffering. As Hassan wrote, “A report published by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, in January says babies are dying of hypothermia because of a lack of access to basic supplies that are not making it across the border to civilians in Gaza.”

Although Hassan did quote COGAT, the Israeli agency which coordinates aid into Gaza, in one paragraph near the end of the article, the overwhelming message of the report was that Gazans are suffering, with the implication strongly being that Israel is the culprit.

But Israel is not the culprit. Hamas, not Israel, started the war and continued it for well over a year. Hamas, not Israel, held hostages for 15 months inside hellish dungeons, and almost certainly underneath, Gaza. And it is Hamas, not Israel, which still governs much of Gaza.

Not only could the entire war have been avoided if Hamas chose to do so, but it could have ended the war at any time. The entire culpability then remains on Hamas’ shoulders.

It is inconceivable that in any other circumstance, a defending party would be criticized for insufficiently feeding an enemy population which continues to hold its hostages, but this standard is applied to Israel with universal consistency in the Canadian news media.

Hamas has weaponized humanitarian aid entering Gaza, stealing large quantities of it, selling it at huge markups, and then taking the revenue and using it to further its terrorism. These accusations come not only from Israel, but from other Palestinians. But this story about Hamas’ inhuman actions are nowhere to be found in Hassan’s article, which tacitly points the finger squarely at Israel for not allegedly feeding Hamas’ coffers quickly enough.

This article is the latest in Hassan’s depiction of Gazans as suffering; in December, she wrote about some women being forced to sell their jewelry to purchase household items, complaints from a Palestinian governmental agency accusing Israel of targeting emergency workers, framing Israel’s actions as problematic for giving Gazans healthcare in Jerusalem, and more.

However, as long as news media outlets like CBC News continue to fixate on Israel, all while giving Hamas a free pass from its human rights abuses against both Israelis and Palestinians alike, it will continue to inadvertently serve as a mouthpiece and stenographer for Hamas’ claims to a Canadian audience.