CNN’s Cooper: Hamas ‘Controls the Images’ from Gaza, That’s Why You Don’t See Where they Fire Rockets From

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” host Anderson Cooper noted that all of the images that come out of Gaza are controlled by Hamas, and journalists in the area know “where you’re allowed to point the camera and where you’re not allowed to point the camera.” He also noted that Hamas isn’t in any video from Gaza “you don’t see any tunnels, you don’t see any rockets being fired, any locations of rockets, because if you’re a cameraman in Gaza, you cannot videotape that.”

Cooper stated, “Hamas controls the images which come out of Gaza. Any cameraman who works in Gaza knows where you’re allowed to point the camera and where you’re not allowed to point the camera. Obviously, the civilian death toll is horrific, and that is the major story there. But the other story is, Hamas doesn’t exist in any video from Gaza. If you’re looking at the images we’re looking at right now, these are — you don’t see any tunnels, you don’t see any rockets being fired, any locations of rockets, because if you’re a cameraman in Gaza, you cannot videotape that. You can’t point the camera at Hamas.”

Washington Post National Security Reporter Joby Warrick responded, “Absolutely. And it’s been striking to me as well that Hamas has sort of disappeared from the scene. We see very little of them. We see very little of the fighting that they’re doing. … And the hostages as well.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett