Unsettling Questions Are Raised by a News Video of “Possible Israeli War Crime”
ITV News was required to provide solid proof to support its conjectures when it made speculation this week over whether Israel had committed “a possible war crime” following a tragic incident involving a civilian being shot in Gaza.
But the footage it released, which purportedly depicts the killing of a Palestinian civilian strolling amidst a crowd carrying a white flag, raises important concerns that the UK news organization ought to have inquired about first.
Serious red flags regarding the circumstances surrounding the incident the tape allegedly showed should have been raised at ITV News after the Israeli army refuted the allegation and chastised the network for airing what it called a “extension of Hamas’s propaganda effort.”
ITV News reports that Mohammed Abu Safia, a network cameraman from Gaza, took the footage.
The fact that the video had been altered was not disclosed to viewers when it was shown.
Moreover, it appears that at least one of the video cuts takes place right before the crucial scene where gunshots are audible and people are seen fleeing. The next frame features a body on the ground, and the editing cut is hardly noticeable.
The footage then shows individuals in what appears to be an active fighting zone carrying the dead and in sadness.
There are several important questions that come up:
Why was there a cut between the shot of a body on the ground and the shot of people fleeing gunshots?
ITV News, could you please validate the events and the amount of time that passed between the two frames?
Did ITV News investigate the possibility that there may have been Hamas militants nearby who were firing?
Was the cameraman’s eyewitness account the only source used by ITV News, and if so, who edited the footage—the network or him?
Another individual wearing a press vest can be seen in the video recording the action with his phone. What were the journalists filming, and why were they even in this region in the first place?
Journalistic Authority vs. Morality
are not questions with an agenda. Any journalist should have asked these questions.
However, it appears that ITV News was more eager to publicize a “good story” than it was to carry out the necessary research and exercise journalistic due diligence before making such a divisive allegation.
The network presented the tragedy as part of an emotive story, showing an interview with the victim just before he was shot and then moving directly to his distraught wife a few minutes later, despite the fact that very little was known about the occurrence.
It also brought in two attorneys to back up its allegations, but we believe it would have been preferable to use the funds for a video expert interview.
Additionally, ITV News reported that Israeli hostages were inadvertently killed by IDF soldiers, as if this serves as
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