Gaza journalists operating under Hamas media controls were given platforms in Westminster

Gaza-based journalists who worked amid what photojournalist Motaz Azaiza has described as a 'Hamas-controlled media environment' were subsequently given prominent platforms in Westminster, researcher Emma Schubart of the Henry Jackson Society revealed to The Jerusalem Post exclusively on Tuesday.

Schubart's discovery follows comments made by Gazan photojournalist Motaz Azaiza in a 3 September 2026 podcast interview with journalist Ahmed Biqui.

During this conversation, Azaiza mentioned the existence of a Hamas-administered WhatsApp group called “Smart” which, according to him, included "every journalist working in Gaza." The group’s icon displayed a Hamas flag and was administered by  "the director of media for the Rafah Border Crossing.” This individual has been identified as Wail Abu Muhsin.

According to Azaiza, the group was used to coordinate media messaging and to organize campaigns against journalists whose reporting departed from the sanctioned line.

“It was never a spontaneous thing,” he added.

Gazan photographers 'accustomed to lowering cameras' to criticism of Hamas

He also said that photographers in Gaza had “become accustomed to lowering their cameras” when civilians criticized Hamas.

HJS reported that several journalists who operated within this Hamas-controlled media environment have subsequently been welcomed into Westminster and presented to British parliamentarians as authoritative witnesses to the war. Other journalists from this environment have been involved more indirectly with the British government.

For example, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh was hosted in Parliament in September 2025.

MPs host Hamas-linked journalists

Hansard records Labour MP Yuan Yang saying on 10 September 2025 that she had “co-hosted an event in Parliament for Wael al-Dahdouh” the previous evening.

During that visit, Al-Dahdouh also met with Labour MP Afzal Khan (Manchester Gorton), who posted publicly that he had met al-Dahdouh, calling it "an honor."

While neither the Post nor HJS has independently verified the membership of the group, Azaiza said it included every journalist working in Gaza at the time.

Then there is Azaiza himself, who on 15 May 2024 addressed a Nakba Day gathering at Westminster Central Hall, yards from Parliament, sharing the event with Sir Alan Duncan, the former Conservative Foreign Office Minister.

Additionally, SNP MP Brendan O’Hara co-organized a cross-party panel in a House of Commons committee room in mid-July 2025 with Oxfam GB and the Council for Arab-British Understanding.

Gaza journalist Abubaker Abed spoke alongside Oxfam’s then-CEO. Abed addressed MPs and journalists who attended on conditions in Gaza and called for an end to UK arms support for Israel.

Finally, Al Jazeera and the International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) held a sold-out Westminster screening of the documentary Gaza in October 2024, followed by a panel. Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent Youmna El Sayed appeared as a panelist, and MPs and peers were in attendance.

“One of Gaza’s most famous ‘journalists’ has described, in his own words, how Hamas controlled the media environment," said Schubart.

Schubart noted that this is of great importance to every international outlet that has relied on Gaza-based journalists yet still claims that their reporting is editorially independent of Hamas.

"The question is straightforward: why were British politicians giving a parliamentary platform to journalism produced under Hamas control?”

Schubart has personally written to the Speaker of the House on these findings. The letter was viewed by the Post.