Oct. 7 brutality caught on camera: Celebrated Gaza photographer admits hiding footage to protect terrorists

Prominent Gazan photographer Motaz Azaiza has revealed that he filmed Israeli hostages being beaten by a Palestinian mob on October 7 — then deliberately withheld the footage to protect the terrorists involved. Azaiza said he followed a Hamas Al-Qassam vehicle carrying captives and recorded Palestinians hitting them, but feared Israel would use his videos to identify and kill the attackers. “I did not want to ruin the lives of the people who were filmed,” he said.

The admission is particularly striking given Azaiza’s international profile: he became one of Gaza’s most recognizable wartime photographers, was named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But in the same extraordinary interview, Azaiza turned his anger toward Hamas, accusing its leaders of sacrificing Gaza’s population while silencing Palestinians who dared criticize them. “You brought us back to the Middle Ages,” he said. “Why was it so important that tens of thousands would be killed?”

Azaiza also described what he said was a Hamas-organized system for intimidating journalists, including a WhatsApp group used to unleash online mobs against critics. He said Gaza photographers learned to lower their cameras whenever civilians cursed Hamas for fear of retaliation