Shining A Spotlight on AFP

The caption of this l’Agence France-Presse (AFP) photo, by one Said Khatib, reads: “A Hamas militant aims a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) at Israeli soldiers during a raid of the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army demolished seven Palestinian houses during the raid in the area near Rafah.”
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That could be true, I suppose, but I very much doubt it. The photo was shot at night; the Hamas “militant” is illuminated by a flash–if not a spotlight–evidently intended for that purpose. If you were about to shoot at Israeli troops with a rocket propelled grenade launcher, would you pose for a brightly-lit snapshot? I don’t think so. And if you were a wire service reporter, would you hang around a few feet away from a well-illuminated guy with an RPG, in the presence of troops who will undoubtedly return fire? Me neither.
It seems rather obvious that this photo was staged by the Hamas “militant” and Mr. Khatib and his AFP camera crew, probably far away from any Israeli troops and perhaps on a different night altogether. What this illustrates is the cozy relationship between the Palestinian terrorists and the international (especially European) press, who always seem to be on the spot to record whatever images the Palestinians want to see in the news, and who are not above misrepresenting the images they shoot.

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