Guardian omits Hamas affiliation of slain Palestinian

A Guardian article by Emma Graham-Harrison (“West Bank videos show Israeli troops killing teenager and driving over man’s body, Jan. 10) reported the following:

Two videos from the West Bank showing Israeli troops shooting a 17-year-old boy and security forces repeatedly running over the body of a man they had shot have added to concerns about the Israeli military’s rules of engagement.

The shooting of 17-year-old Osaid Rimawi in the early hours of last Friday is shown in footage from a security camera in a local shop that was obtained by the Associated Press news agency. The video also shows two earlier rounds of gunfire that injured two unarmed men. Rimawi was killed when he tried to rush to their aid.

The only weapons visible in the footage are guns held by Israeli soldiers. Soldiers gathered round the dead and injured bodies; one prodded Rimawi with his foot, then drove away. They did not make any arrests.

The article omitted one extremely important detail about the 17-year old Palestinian. As Associated Press’s (AP) photographs of Rimawi‘s funeral show, he was a Hamas member, as noted yesterday by our colleague:

@AP describes 17-year-old fatality Osaid Rimawi as "a high school student studying to become a barber." You know what @FrankelJulia doesn't say about Rimawi in her 1200+ word piece? He belonged to a designated terror org. Here he is in @AP photo w/Hamas headband https://t.co/HAPWCYobxJ pic.twitter.com/zNhCfacriT

— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) January 10, 2024

As Sternthal noted in her post about AP, which similarly failed to note Rimawi‘s terror affiliation, you’d think the fact that he was a member of Hamas, a designated terror group which carried out one of the worst massacres in recent history with thousands of barbaric atrocities targeting civilians, including women, children, people with special needs, and the elderly, would be seen as relevant information in contextualising his death.

We complained to Guardian editors.