‘Through Israeli Eyes’ – Top Hamas Official Exposes CNN Bias in Heated Interview

August 19, 2024

Osama Hamdan exposed CNN's bias during an interview with Jim Sciutto. (Photo: video grab)

By Romana Rubeo  

Sciutto was quick to interrupt Hamdan, who continued to repeat that, by adopting the Israeli narrative, the CNN host was practically overlooking the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces. 

Top Hamas official Osama Hamdan exposed on Saturday CNN’s bias during an interview with the channel’s chief national security analyst and anchor, Jim Sciutto.

Sciutto opened the interview by asking if the Palestinian movement Hamas “regretted” the October 7 operation after the killing of 40,000 Palestinians throughout ten months of Israel’s war on Gaza.

“It seems to me that you are giving the Israelis the right to kill the Palestinians by asking if we feel regret for what Israel has done,” Hamdan said, adding that “Israel has been killing Palestinians for the last 76 years.”

“When the Palestinians react against the Israeli occupation, they have to regret what the Israelis are doing,” he added.

Sciutto was quick to interrupt Hamdan, who continued to repeat that, by adopting the Israeli narrative, the CNN host was practically overlooking the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces. 

“I have been covering this part of the world for 20 years,” Sciutto said, adding that he has covered “terrorist attacks by Hamas that killed Israeli civilians”, before asking again if Hamas “accepted any responsibility for the death of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

Sciutto also repeated the unfunded claim that Hamas’ operational infrastructures “are based under homes, mosques, schools in Gaza.”

“Unfortunately, you have covered this region for 20 years but you are watching the region by the Israeli eyes,” Hamdan said. 

“In 2014, Israel attacked Gaza and they killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, didn’t you see that? They killed in one day 1,000 Palestinians in 2008, and you didn’t see that,” Hamdan pressed the host, before being interrupted again.

“You can’t answer by yourself,” Hamdan tried to say, warning that he would leave the studio if he was not allowed to answer Sciutto’s questions. “It is not your duty to dictate what I want to say,” he said.

“Do you accept responsibility for the deaths  of civilians in Gaza?” Sciutto insisted.

“You are still watching what is happening through the Israeli eyes, listening by the Israeli ears, and thinking as if you are part of the Israeli military attack against the Palestinians,” Hamdan said, adding: 

“I see that you support the killing of 40,000 Palestinians, you are not blaming the Israelis for anything,” Hamdan said, before ending the conversation as Sciutto had begun interrupting him, once again. 

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza. 

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7. 

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,139 Palestinians have been killed, and 92,743 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’. 

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children. 

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.  

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.