According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, on Wednesday Balousha and two other journalists, an Australian and a Brit, were detained by Hamas because they happened to be near a UNRWA school shelter that was being forcibly evacuated by Hamas police (which would be a story itself in any other universe.)
The foreign journalists were released after about an hour but Balousha was transferred to a police station where he remained a bit longer.
The journalists tried to explain that they were trying to film a story about the anniversary of "Israel's aggression" in 2014, not to film the Hamas police forcing out innocent people who have nowhere to live. (UNRWA officially closed the shelters this week.)
The Hamas police insulted the reporters and treated them with contempt.In fact, one person who was at a UNRWA shelter tried to commit suicide when the apartment his family had been promised was given to another family with better connections at UNRWA.
There has not been a word about this detention of Western reporters in Western media. The Guardian and Washington Post have not covered the story of their own reporter.
So not only does the world media refuse to report on Hamas abuses of Gazans, they even refuse to report when their own journalists are arrested.
The only conclusion one can make is that Hamas controls the media in Gaza with threats.
Every report from Gaza that doesn't mention that the reporters are intimidated by Hamas is a betrayal of journalistic standards.
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