In an interview with a Lebanese TV station, a Hamas official has acknowledged that journalists who filmed missile launches during the recent conflict were deported from Gaza. According to a MEMRI translation of the interview on Mayadeen TV:
Hamas
August 14, 2014 Isra Al-Mudallal, head of foreign relations in the Hamas Information Ministry, admitted, in a phone interview with Mayadeen TV on August 14, that journalists who filmed the places from where missiles were launched were deported from the Gaza Strip. ‘The security agencies would go and have a chat with these people,’ she said.
Following are excerpts:
Interviewer: How did you manage to maintain contact with the foreign journalists, and how did you convey your point of view to them?
Isra Al-Mudallal: Since the beginning of the aggression against the Gaza Strip, a state of emergency was declared at the border crossings, especially at the Beit Hanoun Crossing, also known as the Erez Crossing, and journalists were allowed in without any bureaucratic procedures, except for registration to guarantee their safety.
Our problem was that [we didn’t know]who was entering the Gaza Strip. Who were they? Most of them were freelancers, and the others were from news agencies.
Fewer journalists entered the Gaza Strip during this war than in the previous rounds, in 2008 and 2012. Therefore, the coverage by foreign journalists in the Gaza Strip was insignificant compared to their coverage within the Israeli occupation [i.e., Israel]. Moreover, the journalists who entered Gaza were fixated on the notion of peace and on the Israeli narrative.
Earlier this month the GMBDW reported on the role of Hamas tunnel-digging units as well as the high techonology supplied by Qatar for use in the tunnels.
