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News outlets refute claim that they about Hamas attack in advance | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall   Paste BN

The claim: CNN and AP admitted to having prior knowledge of Oct. 7 Hamas attack

A Nov. 10 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a man speaking in front of a screenshot of an X post. The post on X, formerly Twitter, includes a picture of a man kissing another man on the cheek and says, "Hassan Eslaiah, an AP/CNN photographer, with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar."

The man in the Instagram video says CNN and the Associated Press were able to get close-up footage of the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas because they knew about it ahead of time.

"Once the attention was drawn to that question, CNN and the Associated Press had to admit the horrific truth," the man says in the video, which was originally shared on TikTok. "They knew it was going to happen. And to make sure that they were the only ones who were going to report on it, they didn't tell anyone."

The Instagram post received more than 15,000 likes in two weeks, while the original TikTok video garnered more than 100,000 likes in the same amount of time. Similar versions of the claim were shared on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

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Our rating: False

Neither outlet "admitted" to having prior knowledge about the attack. To the contrary, both released statements disputing the claim. The Associated Press said the first pictures submitted to its office were taken an hour after the attack began.

Outlets publicly refuted claims

The claim appears to have originated from a Nov. 8 article published on a website called HonestReporting. The site questions the ability of four Gaza-based photojournalists to report on the Oct. 7 attack from the border on what it claims would've otherwise been a "quiet Saturday morning." It suggests the journalists were coordinating with Hamas.

One of the reporters discussed in the article is Hassan Eslaiah, a freelance journalist for CNN and AP, who's shown being kissed on the cheek in the X post.

Both outlets refuted claims that their reporters had prior knowledge of the attack and said they've severed ties with Eslaiah.

"The Associated Press had no knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks before they happened," AP said in a Nov. 9 statement. "The first pictures AP received from any freelancer show they were taken more than an hour after the attacks began. No AP staff were at the border at the time of the attacks, nor did any AP staffer cross the border at any time. We are no longer working with Hassan Eslaiah, who had been an occasional freelancer for AP and other international news organizations in Gaza."

CNN said something similar in its statement, saying Eslaiah wasn't working for the outlet on Oct. 7.

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Reuters and The New York Times, who were also mentioned in the HonestReporting article, debunked claims that they had knowledge of the attack as well.

"While a fourth AP photographer named in the report, Yousef Masoud, has worked as a freelancer for The Times since shortly after the war began, he was not on assignment for the paper on the morning of Oct. 7," The Times said in its statement.

Reuters said it acquired photographs from two Gaza-based freelance photographers who were at the border on Oct. 7, adding that the outlet didn't have a prior relationship with them.

"The photographs published by Reuters were taken two hours after Hamas fired rockets across southern Israel and more than 45 minutes after Israel said gunmen had crossed the border," Reuters said in its statement. "Reuters staff journalists were not on the ground at the locations referred to in the HonestReporting article."

Gil Hoffman, executive director of HonestReporting, told AP the website was simply "raising questions" and doesn't "claim to be a news organization." Hoffman admitted the group had no evidence to back up the claim, which led to two Israeli politicians suggesting the journalists mentioned be killed.

Paste BN reached out to HonestReporting and the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact also debunked this claim.

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