Court documents reportedly show staffers discussing their concerns regarding the freelancer in 2018, but his contract was only terminated in 2023
April 15, 2025 13:36
The Associated Press (AP) was alerted that one of its contracted photographers in Gaza had links to Hamas and continued to employ him for years before severing ties with him over controversy about his work during the October 7 attacks, according to released court documents reported by the Times of Israel.
Hassan Eslaiah, a freelance photographer, took pictures of Gazans, some of them armed, as they invaded Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas incursion into southern Israel. Eslaiah also photographed Gazans standing on top of a burning tank next to the destroyed border fence.
In the wake of the attacks, a photo surfaced showing Eslaiah embracing Hamas’ then-chief Yahya Sinwar in 2020. In response, AP announced it would cut ties with the freelancer in November 2023 but denied that any of its photographers knew about the massacre ahead of time.
His photographs from the day were also removed from AP’s distribution feed.
However, in February 2024, survivors and the families of those killed during the attack filed a lawsuit against AP, accusing the agency of complicity in the invasion through its work with freelancers allegedly linked to terrorists, including Eslaiah.
“AP has long been on notice of their freelancer’s Hamas connections, and chose to ignore those connections,” the lawsuit alleged.
“AP knew, or at the very least should have known, through simple due diligence, that the people they were paying were longstanding Hamas affiliates, propagandists, and full participants in the terrorist attack that they were also documenting.”
The filing posited that Eslaiah’s links to the terror group granted him access to photograph the massacre and other Hamas operations.
The claimants are being represented by the National Jewish Advocacy Centre, which accused AP of “funding and substantially supporting a terrorist organisation” by purchasing images detailing the October 7 massacre. AP has rejected the lawsuit as “baseless”.
“AP had no advance knowledge of the October 7 attacks, nor have we seen any evidence – including in the lawsuit – that the freelance journalists who contributed to our coverage did,” AP’s vice president of corporate communications Lauren Easton said.
“Allegations like this are reckless and create even more potential danger for journalists in the region,” she added.
Yet filings from the lawsuit released on Thursday reportedly showed that AP staff had been notified of Eslaiah’s links to Hamas in 2018 and that some staff had expressed concern about his reliability.
Lawyers representing AP apparently tried to oppose the release of the documents on the grounds of confidentiality, but a judge ruled in favour of the plaintiffs.
Emails from 2018, seen by the Times of Israel, reportedly show that pro-Israel media watchdog the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) questioned AP about a story it had published saying that Israeli forces had shot a four-year-old boy in Gaza.
In the article, Eslaiah’s reporting was apparently used to corroborate the claims of the Hamas-run health ministry that Israel was behind the attack.
“Which media outlet does Hassan Eslaiah work for? I could not find any other references to him,” Camera’s Israel director, Tamar Sternthal, wrote according to the report. “Of course, English-language spellings vary, but journalists who are reliable usually appear in more than one news story.”
“I don’t know. I’ll check. I was told he is independent and reliable and not Hamas,” an AP staffer wrote in response. The AP email addresses in the documents were redacted.
Sternthal then reportedly sent an email detailing links between Eslaiah and the terror group, including a link to the Electronic Intifada website, which itself reported that Eslaiah was a camera operator for the Hamas-affiliated Quds TV. He also reviewed the freelancer’s social media activity and alleged that he had identified with Hamas’s politics, supported terrorism, praised the murder of Israelis and made anti-Jewish statements.
“They have sent an entire file on the journalist we quoted, saying he is from Hamas media. Is this stuff accurate? I thought you said he is independent,” an AP staffer wrote in the internal email chain, per Times of Israel.
“The most important thing to me is that our reporting is accurate. Hassan is a freelancer, he is active on several platforms and mostly quotes, shares or reposts stuff from different sources,” a colleague reportedly said in response.
“We shouldn’t describe someone from Al-Quds as being an independent journalist,” another staffer replied, noting that AP should seek another corroboration for their report. “I just want to shut them up once and for all,” they said of Camera.
“I still think we need to be careful. [Redacted] describes this guy as independent and reliable. I’m not sure he is either,” another email is understood to have said.
Other documents released this week also reportedly showed text messages from a WhatsApp group chat between AP staffers, following the controversy over Eslaiah’s photographs.
The messages show staffers apparently in distress as they discuss their use of freelance photographers in Gaza.
“Until this October 7 issue has been resolved we should not be using any images from Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali,” one message is reported to have said.
“We cannot use him until this blows over. We just can’t. However much we may think this report is b*******, this has gone ballistic,” came the reply. It is unclear which photographer the message refers to.
Another AP staffer, though, reportedly opposed severing ties with the photographers, writing: “Publicly parting ways with one of the stringers is a bad call.”
“His social media is a mess, we really didn’t have a choice. It’s a good lesson for all of us. Be careful what you post or repost. It will come back and bite you,” one response warned.
David Litman, a senior analyst at Camera, said in a statement: “The internal AP emails show that at least one AP official was alarmed enough by Camera’s evidence to question Eslaiah’s ‘independence’ and ‘reliability'.
“That AP would still turn to Eslaiah five years later without informing its audience of [his] terrorist affiliation raises serious concerns about the agency’s judgment and credibility.
“He effectively participated in the October 7 attack, although he may not have pulled any triggers, and AP all along has been suggesting that this is somebody who just happened to be there,” added Etan Mark, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.
“AP knew before October 7 that this guy was likely a terrorist, but nonetheless continued to pay him,” he claimed.
In a statement to the Times of Israel, AP said it was a “mischaracterisation” to suggest that the messages and emails showed its staff were aware of Eslaiah’s Hamas support and doubted his reliability.
“The email exchange is a complaint over Eslaiah being quoted in a brief story. The information attributed to him was confirmed to be accurate,” an AP spokesperson said.
They went on: “The text messages show a couple of journalists discussing being told to stop purchasing photos from certain freelancers, and their concerns over the impact on the ability to cover major breaking news as a result.
“It’s worth noting that AP stopped accepting photos from Eslaiah a year and a half ago.
“AP publishes 5,000 stories every day. When we receive complaints like this one about a witness quoted in an article, we look into them, as we did here.
"This email exchange shows part of our due diligence. Importantly, we did not confirm that Eslaiah worked for al-Quds.”
According to the IDF and Shin Bet security service, Eslaiah was a member of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade and was operating “under the guise of a journalist and owner of a press company.”
