In the shadow of every international outcry over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza lies a darker, often ignored truth: Hamas thrives in chaos — and it will stop at nothing to manufacture it.
This weekend’s tragedy near an aid station in Rafah, where over 30 Palestinians were reportedly killed and more than 170 injured, has once again set the global media ablaze. Initial reports painted a harrowing picture: Israeli forces accused of firing on desperate civilians collecting food. Predictably, outrage followed. Yet a closer look reveals a more sinister and familiar pattern — Hamas orchestrating chaos, targeting its own people, and blaming Israel in an all-too-effective propaganda campaign.
According to eyewitness accounts and medical reports, many of the wounded bore gunshot and shrapnel injuries inconsistent with Israeli activity. The Israel Defence Forces quickly denied responsibility, stating that only warning shots were fired to disperse a crowd storming a convoy. Drone footage released by the IDF purports to show Hamas gunmen firing near civilians. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the independent, U.S.- and Israeli-backed body managing aid at the site, confirmed there was no Israeli strike and categorically denied the claim of an Israeli attack.
Yet despite the IDF and GHF’s clarifications and mounting evidence to the contrary, New Zealand’s own public broadcaster, RNZ, this morning published Hamas’s unverified accusations as fact — with only a passing mention of GHF’s denials in paragraph 12, the contrary footage, or the broader context. It’s a staggering abdication of journalistic responsibility. By treating terrorist propaganda as legitimate news, RNZ and others don’t just misinform the public — they become active participants in a deliberate campaign of deception.
This is not an isolated incident. Time and again, media outlets with no reporters on the ground repeat Hamas talking points, often sourced from its so-called “health ministry” — a body wholly controlled by Hamas operatives. Corrections, if they come at all, are buried days later. The initial lie makes the headlines; the truth never catches up.
The result? A public increasingly misled, increasingly polarised, and increasingly distrustful of the very institutions meant to inform them. And media organisations wonder why their credibility is collapsing.
Why would Hamas target its own people during an aid distribution? Because order and stability are its enemies. The more chaotic and tragic the humanitarian situation appears, the stronger Hamas’s grip becomes. Every casualty is paraded as evidence of Israeli brutality, weaponised in the court of global opinion. Aid deliveries that bypass Hamas’s control threaten both its propaganda narrative and its physical control over the population. When international actors like the GHF offer a direct lifeline to civilians, Hamas moves to sabotage it — literally and narratively.
Hamas does what it always does: creates the catastrophe, then blames Israel.
That international media play along so willingly is not just negligence — it is complicity. And it is not without consequences. The false narratives seeded by Hamas and legitimised by headlines are used to inflame protests, justify diplomatic sanctions, and radicalise audiences far beyond Gaza’s borders.
There is a profound moral failure at play. When the international community reflexively blames Israel for every civilian death in Gaza, it removes agency from the true perpetrators — those who deliberately create the conditions for such deaths and then exploit them for political gain. Hamas has learned that dead Palestinians serve its agenda more than fed ones ever could. The media, by repeating unverified allegations and ignoring subsequent corrections, have become enablers of that strategy.
The people of Gaza deserve better. So does the truth.
