The Israeli war in Gaza is almost 2 years old and yet there are pockets of American media that insist on reporting as if they are still in the throes of the early Israeli response. Namely, CBS News which has been the most consistently pro-Hamas of the legacy nightly newscasts.
Take, for, example, correspondent Debra Patta’s vague reporting of this airstrike at the start of the report:
JOHN DICKERSON: Now to the plight of the hostages held in Gaza. It's been more than a year and a half since Hamas invaded Israel and captured them.
MAURICE DuBOIS: As we mentioned at the top of the broadcast, their families are hoping that President Trump's visit to the Middle East will help get them released. Debora Patta is in Tel Aviv.
DEBORA PATTA: Trapped in the ruins of Gaza, there are at least 20 Israeli hostages still alive being held captive by Hamas. One of them is Gal Dalal's brother Guy.
GAL DALAL: Every bomb, every military operation, everything going on is putting my brother at risk. His life is in risk.
PATTA: And those bombings intensified this week. This security camera footage shows the moment an Israeli strike hit outside a hospital, killing dozens.
Patta makes it seem like Israel is randomly bombing hospitals. The omission of key details is strange but not unsurprising. From The New York Post:
The leader of Hamas has been targeted in fresh Israeli missile strikes on Gaza on Tuesday, the IDF has announced.
It is not clear whether he is dead or alive.
Muhammad Sinwar, the brother of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, was reportedly the target of an Israeli airstrike on the European Hospital in the city of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.
That’s a pretty big omission. Glaring, even, and it recasts the entire report.
The story overall is about transferring hopes for the release of the remaining hostages onto President Trump. In service of that story, the reporter chose to omit the underlying reason for the bombing of the European Hospital- it became a subterranean Hamas command and control module.
Per reports, there were significant Hamas leadership in that tunnel- built with aid money. Among those present, the head of Hamas’s Khan Younis brigade. If they are confirmed dead, it’s a huge deal and perhaps may accelerate the rescue or release of the remaining hostages.
To omit these key details reveals a CBS News division still with a soft spot for Hamas.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on CBS Evening News on Wednesday, May 14th, 2025:
JOHN DICKERSON: Now to the plight of the hostages held in Gaza. It's been more than a year and a half since Hamas invaded Israel and captured them.
MAURICE DuBOIS: As we mentioned at the top of the broadcast, their families are hoping that President Trump's visit to the Middle East will help get them released. Debora Patta is in Tel Aviv.
DEBORA PATTA: Trapped in the ruins of Gaza, there are at least 20 Israeli hostages still alive being held captive by Hamas. One of them is Gal Dalal's brother Guy.
GAL DALAL: Every bomb, every military operation, everything going on is putting my brother at risk. His life is in risk.
PATTA: And those bombings intensified this week. This security camera footage shows the moment an Israeli strike hit outside a hospital, killing dozens. The attack came just a day after the release of American hostage Edan Alexander.
DALAL: It was joyful. We were thankful. But we also, it was such pain to see another hostage (unint).
PATTA: The brothers were at the Nova Music Festival when Hamas launched its October 7 terror attack. Dalal escaped. His brother did not.
DALAL: My brother is in front of me. Every time. All day. I go to sleep with him. I wake up with him. I cannot feel anything else buy guilt on the most simple things.
PATTA: In February, Hamas put out a propaganda video showing his brother.
He was brought out by Hamas to watch other hostages going home.
DALAL: I was helpless entirely because I couldn't do anything to help him, so I just -- I was there again. Watching my baby brother, in this inhuman condition, looking so much worse.
PATTA: Like so many families, he is pinning his hopes on the United States to broker a deal to free the hostages.
DALAL: Although we break sometimes because we are human, we also keep each other strong, with the hope that Guy will return to us.
DICKERSON: Debora Patta in Tel Aviv.
