The Gazan photographer and journalist Motaz Azaiza filmed evidence of the cruelty not just of Hamas, but also of ordinary Gazans, members of a mob who beat helpless Israeli hostages as they were taken into the Strip on October 7, 2023. He chose not to release the footage, he now says, because he didn’t want to put the members of that mob at any risk of Israeli reprisals. More about Azaiza’s decision, and his surprising condemnation of Hamas for using Gazans as cannon fodder, can be found here: “Gaza journalist Motaz Azaiza says he filmed hostage abuse on October 7 but hid footage,” by Eli Leon, Jerusalem Post, September 19, 2026:
Gazan photographer and journalist Motaz Azaiza said he filmed Israeli hostages being beaten by a Gazan mob on October 7, 2023, but chose not to publish the footage because he feared it could put the Palestinians involved at risk.
“I saw the vehicle of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and there were Israeli captives there,” Azaiza recalled. “People got out, watched, beat them, hit them, and I followed them and filmed. But I did not publish those videos. Why? Because I did not want to ruin the lives of the people who were filmed.
“I understood that Israel would use those videos to identify every person who was there and eliminate them,” he added. “I did not want to be responsible, even indirectly, for the deaths of those people in exchange for a few likes and views online.”
A Nobel Peace Prize nominee and one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, Azaiza has become one of the most recognizable figures associated with the current war. In an extensive and unusual interview with journalist Ahmed Biqui on the podcast Taqarrab, Azaiza revealed aspects of life in Gaza that his millions of social media followers have not seen.
During the interview, which was published earlier this month, Azaiza also delivered rare public criticism of Hamas’s leadership, accusing the group of bringing disaster upon the Gaza Strip.
Although Azaiza described himself as a supporter of armed Palestinian resistance, he said such resistance must have limits and serve a purpose.
“I support armed resistance, but one that brings results, or at least gives me the feeling that my life is valuable in the eyes of the resistance. Why should a Palestinian be cheap in the eyes of Palestinians themselves? You are making people hate the resistance with your own hands.”
Azaiza is referring to Hamas’ practice of embedding itself in civilian areas, hiding its men and weapons in schools, hospitals, mosques, and apartment buildings, using civilians as human shields and at the same time, being perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of civilians if that provided propaganda points for the terror group.
Azaiza is no friend of Israel. He insist he is a supporter of the “armed resistance.” He kept secret the film he made of ordinary Gazans’ cruelty toward helpless Israelis as they were being driven into Gaza on the backs of lorries or slung over the handlebars of motorcycles. And that is why his denunciation of Hamas, for its total indifference to the safety and wellbeing of Gazan civilians is all the more telling. Hamas rules in Gaza using the same weapon it wields against Israel — terrorism. Criticize Hamas in Gaza, and you will end up dead. That’s why Azaiza had to wait until he was safely in Qatar, and even then he waited several years, to tell the truth about the terror group. How many of those people marching around the world to display their hatred for the Jewish state and their support for its enemies do you think will pay the slightest attention to what Motaz Azaiza has to say about Hamas?
Billy says
This is daily life with Islam’s Muslims against women, children, and Non-Muslims as well as fellow Muslims using Muslim deceit, discrimination, violence, segregation, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 9:5, 29, 41, 111; 49:15, etc.). Islamization, like Cultural Marxism, deceives, manipulates, propagandizes, and virtue-signals against the enemies of Allah, the Non-Muslims, by: Islamic Law dba Islam, discrimination, deception, theft, segregation, violence, and terrorism through our Western Institutions with Muslim MONEY and Muslim LIVES as taught in Islam’s Qur’an to make Islamic Law supreme(Qur’an 2:191; 3:54; 4:89, 91; 7:99; 8:30; 9:5, 29, 41, 111; 49:15, etc.).
Actually, Islam is the daily practice of Islamic Law, Sharia, which is created from the Qur’an, the Sira, the Hadith, the Tafsir, the Tarikh, past Islamic Legal Rulings, etc to solidify power and control. Furthermore, Muslim Islamization includes Muslim Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Organizations using Governments, Bureaucracies, Mosques, Muslim Homes, Muslim Schools, Halal Organizations, Islamic Centers, Sharia Courts, Muslim Non-Profits, etc. to fund, to educate, and to support Islam Law and Muslim Propaganda against all Non-Muslims(Qur’an 1:5; 3:51, 101, 118; 5:3, 48; 8:60, 45:18; 48:29, etc.).
somehistory says
I commented on his deceit last evening on the thread about the ‘journalist in NY’….he is a big part of the “slime” to which he referred when he supposedly just didn’t want to expose muzzies who didn’t like hamas.
this goon is as bad as the hamas/civilians he was protecting.
beeaware says
In order to win the war in GAZA, you have to wipe out the disease of HAMAS, anything short of that, is extension of the war. Wiping out the distant upper echelons of disease ridden mulllahs, to truly win the war.
Brent Horton says
Ah, yes, the Poor, Poor, Poor, Poor, Palestinians. So innocent, so tolerant, so giving, so loving. Bottom line? They can never be trusted, or accepted. My proof? My proof is the fact that every other islamic jurisdiction on the Planet refuses to take them.
If you preach ” Death to the Jew and Infidel “? You hang. If you commit an act of terrorism? You hang. If you operate or participate in islamic rape gangs? You hang.
If President Bukele can clean up the MS13 SCUMBAGS?, We can clean up islamic fundamentalism!