Celebrated Gaza Journalist Who Hung Out With Zohran Mamdani Admitted to Hiding Footage of 10/7 Attacks on Israeli Hostages
(Photo Credit: @motaz_azaiza on Instagram)
A Nobel Prize-nominated journalist from Gaza who has hung out with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) multiple times has admitted to covering up footage of Israeli hostages being attacked on October 7, 2023.
Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza admitted to hiding the dreadful images during a podcast interview, the New York Post reported on Monday.
Azaiza said he covered it up to protect the people who were seen attacking the hostages once they were pulled into Gaza, because he feared the Israeli military would use the video to seek payback against the torturers. He also claimed Hamas controls all the media coming out of Gaza via a single WhatsApp group; any reporters who dare to publish content which makes Hamas look bad will be “persecuted relentlessly,” he said. Hamas’s firm grip on freedom of expression in Gaza is well-known and documented.
“People got out, watched, beat them, hit them, and I followed them and filmed,” Azaiza said on the Taqqarrab podcast. “But I did not publish those videos.”
“Why? Because I did not want to ruin the lives of the people who were filmed,” he continued. “I understood that Israel would use those videos to identify every person who was there and eliminate them.”
He added he did not want to feel “responsible” for their deaths following the 10/7 attack, when about 1,200 people were murdered in Israel, and hundreds of hostages were taken back to Gaza.
Azaiza’s admission comes two years after he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his photography, which was heralded for “giving the world an insight into the atrocities in Gaza.” Time Magazine also honored Azaiza as one of the 100 most influential people in 2024.
“For 108 days, Motaz Azaiza acted as the world’s eyes and ears in his native Gaza,” Time wrote in its glowing blurb. “Armed with a camera and a flak jacket marked ‘PRESS,’ the 25-year-old Palestinian photographer spent nearly four months documenting life under Israeli bombardment: families displaced from homes, women mourning loved ones, a man trapped beneath the rubble. His images offered a glimpse into Gaza that few in the international press—which has been all but barred from accessing the Strip—could rival.”
On top of that, Azaiza has seemed to get pretty friendly with NYC’s mayor over the past few years. He posted a pic of the two smiling together in August 2025, saying it was great to see Mamdani winning over voters on the campaign trail, only a year after Azaiza said he was “cursed at and called a terrorist” in The Big Apple.
Azaiza later joined Mamdani during his election night victory party, and he recently visited the mayor at Gracie Mansion.
“It’s always good to be at the mayor’s house,” Azaiza captioned his July 16 post on Instagram.
Azaiza said during his podcast interview his coverage — and the coverage of every other Palestinian journalist — is compromised by Hamas, whether through fear or punishment.
“Photographers in Gaza have become accustomed to lowering their cameras the moment someone says something bad about Hamas,” he said, “because anyone who dares to show reality is persecuted relentlessly.”
He added, “Gaza is the most toxic place in the world.”
The post Celebrated Gaza Journalist Who Hung Out With Zohran Mamdani Admitted to Hiding Footage of 10/7 Attacks on Israeli Hostages first appeared on Mediaite.