Fox News Correspondent Trey Yingst on Covering War in Gaza and Why ‘Brave Palestinian Journalists’ Must Be Protected

“The Israelis have killed journalists in drone strikes,” said Trey Yingst, the chief foreign correspondent for Fox News — in a stunning moment during the recent Fox Nation documentary Black Saturday. “They’ve killed them with small arms fire, and it’s unacceptable.”

Yingst’s commentary, which premiered late last year, was an eye-opener. Not much is said on American networks about the killing of Palestinian journalists. But as someone who has been on the frontlines since the outset of the conflict, Yingst feels as though he has to speak up — even if the subject is an uncomfortable one for American audiences.

Speaking to Mediaite editor Aidan McLaughlin on this week’s episode of Press Club, Yingst explained why he cannot remain silent.

“I have always been outspoken about the protection of journalists amid war,” he said. “And as it relates to Palestinian journalists in Gaza, I’ve worked alongside many of them. They are some of the bravest journalists I have ever met around the world.”

It’s a subject that Yingst, who has reported from conflict zones in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and beyond, tackles in his book Black Saturday: An Unfiltered Account of the October 7th Attack on Israel and the War in Gaza — a personal and deeply-reported account of the horrifying terror of the Hamas attack on October 7 and the war that followed.

The risks faced by reporters in Gaza are staggering. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 175 have been killed during the ongoing conflict — the highest number recorded in any war in decades. Those killings often go unexplained by the Israeli government.

“What I’ve seen often is a journalist being killed, and then afterward the Israeli military will release something that says they’re in Hamas,” Yingst said, recounting the case of a journalist killed in a drone strike who had been visible on TV “every day since the war started.”

Yingst said he demands proof before accepting any government claim about a journalist’s affiliation with militants. “I need evidence, facts, and information. If you can prove to me that this guy was actively participating in a conflict as a sniper, we’ll report it. If not, I won’t.”

Meanwhile, foreign journalists are still barred by the Israeli military from entering Gaza without an IDF escort, a policy Yingst called on to change.

“I’ve been a big advocate for press access to this conflict,” he said. “We have relied on the brave Palestinian journalists who have risked their lives to tell us the story about their home, but they’ve been working for almost 18 months now. I think it’s time that journalists are allowed into Gaza to report from the outside.”

Yingst has covered the region for more than a decade, but his intrepid and clear-eyed reporting for Fox News since Oct. 7 has earned him awards and high praise from veteran journalists. Yet his work, particularly that which highlights the killing of civilians, has also drawn criticism from partisans.

“I am not pro-Israel, I am not pro-Palestine, I am pro-truth,” he said when asked about facing heat for reporting on war. “You have to have moral clarity based on the facts that you gather. That’s it. It’s very simple.”

Mediaite’s Press Club airs in full Saturdays at 9 a.m. on Sirius XM’s POTUS Channel 124. You can also subscribe to Press Club on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Read a transcript of the conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Aidan McLaughlin: What brings you back stateside?

Trey Yingst: I’m going to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend.

I will see you down there, I’m sure, at many of the exhausting festivities. Are you attending the dinner?

Yeah, I’ll be at the dinner and all the events. I find it’s a good time to see all my friends in the industry, and I try to go every year.

It must be a weird transition to go from covering a war zone to being in the United States.

I find it jarring to come back to the United States every time that I come back. It is a mental transition that we don’t talk about a lot, but it’s one of the hardest parts of the job, I would say, because my mind is constantly prepared for war. And it has to be. It’s a safety mechanism to be in that state of mind. But as a result, you have to come and have lots of small conversations in Washington for the weekend, and you go from being on the phone with all sorts of sources in the region, sometimes being in the middle of combat, to talking about the weather and sports. And when I first started making that transition, when I would come back for the dinner, it was very difficult. And I think I’ve gotten better at it. I almost had to retrain myself on how to talk to people not overseas.

You’re based in Tel Aviv. What’s day-to-day life like for you, from when you wake up?

The first thing I do is check in with my team in the morning, and I stay up pretty late because I like watching the U.S. news cycle. And so generally, they’re up before me, and they’ll flag if anything big happened overnight. But I check and see what’s happening in the region. I read a bunch of different outlets, try to get an understanding of what’s happening domestically there, but also across the Middle East. And lately, that has looked like the Houthis launched a ballistic missile overnight, or there were a series of strikes that took place across Gaza, or there’s some political developments as it relates to the possibility of a broader agreement between Russia and Ukraine. And so I try to just get up to speed on everything, check in with the team, and see what our live schedule looks like for the day. But every day is different, and I have to be prepared for that to happen. Any given day, I can get a call and immediately have to go to the airport or get in the car and respond to any sort of breaking news, and that can be anywhere in the world, from Morocco to Syria to Iraq to Afghanistan to Pakistan to the Gulf — all over.

Is that more exciting or exhausting?

Certainly, there’s an aspect of it that’s exciting. But also, I think it goes back to being mentally prepared for what you’re going to see because inevitably, there’s an amount of adrenaline that comes with war zone reporting, but you have to have controlled adrenaline. You can’t let it interfere with your judgment. You also can’t let it interfere with your reporting. We’re there to do a job. We’re there to be the voice for the voiceless. And that means focusing on the subjects we’re interviewing. It means remembering why we’re there.

And also, it means you have to constantly be sourced up with everyone in the region. And I think that’s the part we don’t talk about on TV as much, but I’m constantly checking in with sources on stories that we’re not even doing that week or even that month, because I want to be prepared. If I do have to go to Beirut, okay, I need to have the people to call. If I’m going to Doha, I need to remember, okay, who are my contacts in the region who, when I land, I can meet with and start gathering information? And so that’s, I think, what I’m doing in the morning generally: A, checking in with my team, and then B, making sure that I’m following all developments out of the region.

It’s also the timing, because sometimes the timing is extensive. We’ll go for weeks and weeks at a time. And I’m not someone who likes to take a break. My bosses are like, hey, all right, wellness check, take a day off, make sure you take care of yourself, and I’m like, I want to keep going. I love this industry.

Do you have a social life?

I do. Most of my friends are journalists, though.

What about sources?

I would say most of my social life is with journalists. I have some friends who are locals, but I’m so obsessed with this job that I want to be around people who are talking shop all the time. And I know that’s not healthy, but really, 80-plus percent of my identity is based on being a journalist. And plenty of people in my life tell me that’s not a good thing, but I don’t really care. This is what I love. I have loved this craft my entire adult life. And I’ve been doing this my entire adult life, and so it’s what I look forward to every day.

You have to force yourself to do a silent retreat or something where they take your phone.

I’m super into the wellness stuff. I do cold plunges. Meditation, try to eat pretty clean, and go to the gym. I think that’s probably worthwhile.

And a departure from the typical stereotype of a foreign correspondent, which is heavy drinking.

Absolutely, and I’ve talked about this a lot publicly. I’m trying to change that culture because it is a culture that, historically, especially during Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign correspondents were known as people who were drinking a ton, doing drugs, and living a very unhealthy lifestyle. And my take is, why can’t we do this work in a really healthy way, so we can keep doing the work? Because it would be very easy to burn out. Just the things that we see all over the world, you carry those with you. You can come home from a story, but you still think about it.

How often are you going inside Gaza and is it always with an IDF escort?

Yeah, during this war that has lasted for more than 560 days, the Israeli military has not allowed journalists to independently enter Gaza, which is a deviation from previous conflicts. I covered Sukkot in 2014 and entered Gaza. I entered Gaza right after the war in 2021, many times in between in 2019 and 2018 as well. But we have not been allowed to enter independently. And so anytime that we go into Gaza, now has to be on a military embed. And so I would say once every couple of months, one of those embeds pops up. I’ve been a big advocate for press access to this conflict. We have relied on the brave Palestinian journalists who have risked their lives to tell us the story about their home, but they’ve been working for almost 18 months now. I think it’s time that journalists are allowed into Gaza to report from the outside.

What are those embed trips like? Does it feel like you have the freedom to report what you want, or are they only showing you what the IDF wants you to see?

We always have the freedom to report exactly as we’re going to do, because I wouldn’t go anywhere in the world if I didn’t have 100% freedom in editorial control, period. And if there’s ever a time in the course of my reporting, whether it’s in the Middle East or anywhere in the world, where I feel that I’m not going to have full editorial control, I’m not going to go.

Which is a problem you’ve seen in places like Afghanistan, where reporters have had trouble remaining there and still reporting.

Absolutely. And so, look, from my perspective, it is not the ideal scenario, but we have to do what we can to tell the story of this war from all angles. And I think it’s something that my team and I have been able to do quite well from October 7th on — and even before October 7th. And so, it’s different every time. Sometimes the combat is a little bit more intense. But at the end of the day, my role is not to make friends. It’s to hold those in power accountable. It’s to ensure that we’re telling a fair, accurate, and objective picture of what’s going on. And so I will always take whatever pieces of information I can get to add to my reporting, but it doesn’t stop there. When we’re doing a longer-form piece, for example, we have in the past had teams in Gaza who are gathering interviews and information for us that I’m integrating into our reports. I have talked to Palestinian civilians inside Gaza when I’m on these embeds to get a take on what this has been like for them. The bottom line is that it’s a challenging environment to gather firsthand information, but that’s not going to stop us from doing our work to the best of our ability, given the circumstances.

What do you think the biggest misconceptions are about the realities of this war? Do you feel there’s anything that you understand by being there and reporting on it and talking to people on the ground that we don’t really understand here at home?

I would say the biggest misconception is that people want to constantly paint populations with a broad brush. They want to say that all Israelis believe this and all Palestinians believe this. And I think one of the most challenging parts of my work, but also one of the most important parts, is describing the nuance of the situation and trying to explain to people that in a society of nine million people there are a variety of viewpoints about the war, about the hostages, about the entire political situation. And also trying to describe to people that among a population of two million Palestinians in Gaza, that same spectrum exists. And I’ve written extensively about this, I talk extensively about it on TV. And the way that I try to address it is to talk to as many people as possible across that respective spectrum.

And, as a result, you get a variety of viewpoints, stories, and positions. And I try to weave those into our reporting to describe the most accurate picture of what a situation looks like. But that’s very complicated to do. And I think that each and every day, on each and every story, it can be challenging. But again, it doesn’t stop us from doing this work. My team there has reported on this story for decades. And they understand the complexities and not only the desire but the responsibility to get this right. Because I’m not there to make friends. I’m there to cover the news. And I think, like I said, that we’ve been able to do that in a very fair, accurate, and objective way that stands out.

In this conflict, more than any, there’s a fierce debate about the way it should be covered. How do you navigate that?

I approach it with a human-first approach. And it’s a style of journalism that I’m trying to get more people on board with because I think that humanizing civilians in war should be one of our first priorities. Because when we take a step back, the people that are paying the highest price amid a conflict like this are the civilians. Both Israeli and Palestinian civilians have suffered in different ways over the past 18 months. We have to describe the nuance. We have to describe the history. We have to put things into context, put the numbers into context with accurate and objective framing. And that again can be challenging, but I think that when we approach these stories from a human-first perspective, it allows people thousands of miles away to connect with the subjects.

And I have held this belief from the beginning of this war, and before, that two things can be true at once. And these things influence our reporting in a very important way. And that is that the October 7th massacre, this terrorist attack, was the deadliest day in Israel’s history. People were dragged from their homes. Many were executed on their front lawns. Around 1,200 people were slaughtered that day by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The war that followed has been the deadliest event for Palestinians in the history of their people. Thousands of women and children have been killed. Thousands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters have also been killed. It’s part of our work as journalists in the region to break down the numbers as best we can, to get as much sourcing on the information that we’re presenting, and to cover both of those stories at the same time. And I think you’ll see that in the course of our reporting. We take no sides. I’m not pro-Israel, I’m not pro-Palestine, I am pro-truth. And to be pro-truth means you have to constantly cover what is happening, again focusing on the civilian population of the region.

And so on any given week — let’s take a week this past month — we’re covering developments with a story where 15 Palestinian medics were killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza, holding the Israeli military accountable for that action and covering the story of these civilians who were trying to do their jobs as paramedics. The same week, we’re also talking with the wife of a hostage, Omri Miran, who is still held inside Gaza, who again was dragged from his home on the morning of October 7th, and his two young daughters are waiting for him to return. Both of those stories are important, and both of those can be told at the same time, in the same week, as part of our extensive coverage of this ongoing conflict. And so that’s my approach, to try to cover as much as I can, and to try to talk to as many people as possible, because at the end of the day, I’m one person. And I have to be able to report with authority on the subject. And I think that you lose that authority if you want to pick a side in conflict. And that is not to unfairly equate actions that take place in war. I try to look at each individual day as a day of its own, and what happens during that day with proper context. And just not use a broad brush, but to provide as much nuance and accuracy as possible.

Those human stories make for some of your most powerful reporting. And it can also get you on the receiving end of anger. I remember when you reported on a young father whose two infant children were killed in an Israeli airstrike, and it was just days after they were born. Obviously a horrifying, newsworthy story in a war. But you got hate on social media for reporting it straight. And you wrote in response, ‘You can have empathy for Palestinian children who are killed amid war and empathy for Israeli children who were killed on October 7th. You can express concern for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza and for Palestinian civilians who are suffering. Don’t lose your humanity.’ Why did you think that was important to say, and has that been a real challenge reporting on the facts of the war on the ground when there are a lot of people who don’t want to hear it?

That post perfectly describes the way that I felt then and the way that I feel now. I see no reason why we shouldn’t be reporting on both. The story of, for example, the Bibas kids — Kfir Bibas and his brother — we have to talk about that story. We have to talk about how these young kids were dragged from their home, and we saw those images of their mother holding them, terrified on the morning of October 7th, and ultimately they came back, returned to Israel in coffins. But we also have to tell the story of Hind Rajab, who was killed as medics were trying to get to her, and she was trapped in a car near Gaza City. These are people, they’re family members, they’re people, they’re humans like you and I, and they have emotions, and they feel fear, they feel love, they feel happiness, they feel anger — they’re just like you and I. And so, I’m not bothered when I get attacked for doing the work that I do, because I get attacked by both sides depending on the story that I’m covering. But again, I am not there to help or to hurt anyone. I’m there to do the news in an old-school way.

How do you balance the idea of neutrality with moral clarity? Because I think that sometimes those can be in conflict, but you’re reporting on things that are sometimes just simply wrong, and sometimes you say so.

I think you have to have moral clarity based on the facts that you gather. That’s it. It’s very simple. Because if we can tell the truth 100% of the time and gather as much information as possible, most of the time, the reality comes to the surface very quickly for people, for objective observers. If someone wants to watch a report and they are going to believe what they’re going to believe no matter what I say and whatever I present, there’s not much I can do. And I don’t think about those people. The feedback I get, positive or negative, doesn’t influence how I do the job because you have to just be so clear-minded in this line of work because of the political, emotional, and just regional realities of that conflict. But I’m well-versed in this ability based on having to work in some of the world’s most dangerous places and also having seen truly, truly horrific events that I think, after witnessing them and being able to then get on camera later that day and speak clearly and slowly and objectively, I think it’s prepared me for this story in a very unique way.

The death toll has been a contentious subject throughout this conflict. At first there was a pretty intense aversion to citing the death toll from the Gaza Health Ministry because the government there is run by Hamas. Now we know that the Israeli government was relying on that death toll, and there was a study that found that the death toll is actually far higher than the 50,000 cited by the health ministry. Do you have a personal view of how accurate those numbers are, and how do you cite them in your reporting?

I cite them with the most nuance possible, because anyone who claims to know the exact number of people killed inside Gaza is not telling the truth. There is no way to determine exactly how many people have been killed since the beginning of this conflict, in part due to the fact that many of them are still buried under the rubble. I hear and understand the concern that people have when it comes to numbers that are released by the Hamas-run health ministry, despite the fact that historically, that ministry has been quoted in previous conflicts.

The way that I’ve handled this very sensitive topic, I think, is as objective as it comes in the industry. And that is to take the numbers that I’m getting from sources in Gaza and present them to Israeli sources. And then say, hey, do you guys disagree with these numbers? And the response has been quite illuminating. They don’t disagree with the 50,000 number. They disagree with nuance — that among that number, roughly 20,000 of them are Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters. Right. And so that’s how I present it. Here are the numbers being presented. Israeli officials, when I give them the numbers that I’m getting from Gaza, don’t actually disagree with them. But they say, make sure that you say some of them are Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters. And they’re right in that sense.

Do you buy that the number is that high? That there are 20,000 Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters that they’ve killed?

There is no way for me to independently confirm either number from either side. And so I say that, actually, to the audience. I can’t independently confirm these numbers. Hamas says this many people were killed. The Israelis say this many were killed. I have no way to independently verify either number. And that’s it. I wish I did. I wish I had the access to be inside Gaza. And even then, I wouldn’t be able to verify the number. But on specific days when there’s a specific instance where a number is disputed based on an airstrike, that’s part of the reason that international journalists need to be there and have free access. Because Palestinian journalists are there and they’re doing incredible work, but they don’t have the freedom of movement that previously when I’ve been inside Gaza during rounds of conflict, I had.

You mentioned the paramedics who were killed by the IDF. Haaretz had a shocking story — they reported that the IDF soldiers fired at these aid workers for more than three minutes, some at point-blank range. The IDF initially denied these killings almost entirely. And then we’ve had footage come out that showed exactly what happened.

I’ve got a lot to say on this, because I just got out of a pretty sensitive briefing with the Israeli military on this subject, where we viewed some video that’s not yet released from an Israeli drone as this is taking place. And so let’s walk through the timeline of this. Basically, this incident happened on March 23rd, and these paramedics are responding to a call where another ambulance had been shot by Israeli forces. There’s been a ton of misinformation online about this incident. Initially, there were reports about a shootout, and that it turned out to be three Hamas operatives. The Israelis say that’s not the case, that the vehicle, the initial vehicle, was misidentified. And then ultimately, these medics get the call. This is the second incident.

The initial vehicle was an ambulance?

It was an ambulance; it was misidentified, yep. The point is, in this briefing, basically we view the video from the main incident, and there is a deputy commander of the Golani reconnaissance brigade who orders his forces to open fire on these medics when they arrive at the scene. And we’re talking about multiple ambulances and a fire truck and a bunch of people that are clearly dressed as medics.

Clearly, to the soldiers who are firing?

The vehicles certainly are clear. It’s obvious. The Israelis have said that they couldn’t see because of night vision, or their vision was obscured. We have pressed them on this topic. The point is this story became a big story for one reason, and it all started with a claim that was made by the Israeli military in a statement that we received as well, and we have reported this story. So I’m really just reviewing what is already out there. We’ve already reported all of what I’m telling you right now. This claim by the Israeli military is that the lights of the ambulance and firetruck weren’t on, that they approached suspiciously with no headlights and no sirens. The New York Times from a UN source that ultimately is the Palestinian Red Crescent gets a video that shows that’s not the case.

And so suddenly, the IDF narrative of what happened does not align with the video that the entire world can now see. And this led to, ultimately, an investigation that was conducted by the Israeli military, and there — that’s a whole different conversation about a military investigating itself. But the conclusion to this was that two things happened, and this is what I learned in the briefing. One, this deputy commander of the Golani reconnaissance brigade did not provide accurate information, and that’s what the IDF says led to this statement not matching the video. And two, he ordered the forces to open fire on these medics, and the conclusion was that, at least from their perspective, he didn’t do anything wrong, but he misidentified the vehicle. We could talk for hours about this specific incident, but the conclusion to this was that the deputy commander that ordered the open firing on these medics was dismissed and the commander received a reprimand on his record, and the soldiers that were involved in the shooting, many of them are likely still operating in Gaza.

Hamas is not a paragon of honesty either. Do incidents like these affect how much stock you put into official statements from either side of this war?

I would say that I approach all statements from all officials, all militaries, all terror organizations, everyone I ever talk to with that skepticism. I think every good journalist should, because people aren’t releasing statements to the press to be helpful and illuminate the things that they’re doing wrong in this conflict or others. They’re releasing statements to the press because they want the press to cover the story in a certain way that makes them look good. And so I am constantly skeptical and critical of any statement or any piece of information. I’ve talked about this before as well. I am constantly getting people reaching out in the region with information about what’s going on in certain conflicts because they see my voice as important and a voice that people listen to. And I would say I end up using 10 or 15 percent of that information that’s actually given to me, because I either: A, can’t confirm it; B, it’s a spin; C, it’s not relevant to the story and it’s just someone trying to sort of puff up their side or a certain politician. And so that’s part of our role as journalists — to ensure that we are not just mouthpieces, but that we’re reporting, we’re investigating, we are asking tough questions.

You’ve spoken frequently about the toll on journalists in this war. You said in an awards show speech recently that Palestinian journalists must be protected. And the death toll of journalists here is astronomically high. I think we’re approaching 200 journalists killed in this conflict, which is the highest of any war in decades. Why did you see that as an important thing to note?

I have always been outspoken about the protection of journalists amid war and journalists who are currently or have been unjustly jailed around the world. I spoke extensively about Evan when he was held in a Russian prison. I have covered the search for Austin Tice for years. And as it relates to Palestinian journalists in Gaza, I’ve worked alongside many of them. I’ve been going to Gaza for more than 10 years. And I know them very well. I’ve sat with them, I’ve had iftars with them. I’ve come to know them and their families. And talk to them not just in the course of reporting, but in the course of being a human. They’re friends of mine. And they are some of the bravest journalists I have ever met around the world. Some of the best of our industry — Palestinian journalists. And I have a pretty big platform. My goal is to be truly the best in the world, and I don’t say that from a place of ego, I say that from a place of wanting to have the ability to tell people, hey, look at this, this is important. Because that’s a lot of power and responsibility, and I feel that I can do that in a very objective and fair way. But as it relates to journalists, I feel a massive responsibility to speak up for Palestinian journalists. And I will continue to do so, not just when I have the opportunity to have a platform when I win an award, but online when journalists are killed in drone strikes or with small arms fire. It doesn’t matter. From my perspective, these are messengers of the truth of what’s happening.

Have you lost any that you worked with?

Plenty of guys that I’ve met in the course of our reporting. The press corps there is very similar to the press corps in Washington. When you go to an event, you meet a variety of people. I remember a guy that when I first went to Gaza in 2014 Yasser Murtaja, who was someone who basically told me about the press corps in Gaza for the first time. This was 2014. He was killed. This is not a new phenomenon.

He was killed before 2021?

Yeah, before this current conflict. But really, the journalists that are currently there right now that are reporting and that have been there — I would say they are some of the bravest in the world. You look at Motaz — he has been such a voice for the people of Gaza, and his photos have traveled far, far beyond where he could ever go as a person. Look at Hind and the work that she’s doing. Mohammed Morsi. The list goes on. These people are true journalists. I’ll continue to speak on their behalf and for their colleagues, because people are listening and it’s important to do.

Some people have accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists. Do you see any evidence of that?

What I’ve seen often is a journalist being killed, and then afterwards, the Israeli military will release something that says they’re in Hamas. And you see this most recently with Hossam Shabat. They killed him in a drone strike, and then we said to the Israelis, this guy has been on TV every day since the war started. And they said, no, he’s in Hamas. We said, prove it then. And they gave us a document that had been released six months prior. That had his name on a spreadsheet, saying that he was a Hamas sniper. And I said to the Israelis, where did you get this document? We can’t tell you. Where did you obtain the document from? How long ago did you obtain it? How can I verify this document’s authenticity? I’m a journalist. I need evidence, facts, and information. If you can prove to me that this guy was actively participating in a conflict as a sniper, we’ll report it. At the end of the day, we want to get to the truth. And they couldn’t do it. And that has been the case often. And I think — I’ve said this to the military, I’ve said this to people who are critical of our coverage in this regard — give me evidence. This is how I report. I report in a very old-school way.

The people that I look at, that I try to emulate, are the Cronkites and the Murrows, who went to the places that other people won’t go and told the stories that otherwise wouldn’t be told. Try giving an inaccurate piece of information or a partial piece of information to one of those greats — they wouldn’t accept it. And I won’t accept that either. Because at the end of the day, my reporting is based on the facts that we can gather, the evidence that we receive, the people that we talk to, and the information that we can conclude. If I can’t confirm the information, I’m not reporting it. And it goes back to the part in our earlier conversation: we get a ton of information all the time. And if I were to just put that on air right away without the very strict process of vetting this information, who would I be as a journalist? This is what I do. I have one reputation, and that is to be clear, objective, fair, and accurate. I can never stray from that. Anyone in the world who wants to provide me with new information that I can confirm, we’ll report it. But don’t give me a document that I cannot confirm.

How do you source up in a war zone like the one you’re covering right now?

It takes years. My sources in Israel and in Gaza, I’ve been developing for years. There were plenty of people in the course of writing this book and in the course of our reporting whom I had been talking to for years beforehand. And just in the past two years, I started using the information. But that’s all around the world. Sources are people. And you have to remember that. There’s a difference between subjects that you’re interviewing and sources. They have a lot of similarities, but there’s a key difference. A lot of subjects that we interview, both in Gaza and in Israel, talking to journalists is cathartic for them. They get to explain the thing that they’ve been trying to talk about for so long. Someone’s listening. Sources, oftentimes, want to spin you one way or the other. And I find that with officials, not just in this conflict but all conflicts, politicians, everyone — sources that talk to journalists don’t talk to them because they love journalism, freedom of the press, and information. They talk to journalists because they want to spin journalists. So you have to constantly remember that.

But I would say I have developed some of the best sources in the region because people know I play it straight. That’s it. It’s the reason why you won’t find another Western journalist — really any journalist in the world — who has interviewed and been around the Al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas and interviewed and been around elite combat forces in the IDF. And that’s because they know I’m just there to do my job as a journalist. I’m going to tell people exactly what you do, good or bad. And I have used that method, not just in the Middle East, but all over the world. It’s the reason I’ve been able to sit down with the Taliban in Afghanistan. It’s the reason I sat down with HTS in Syria. It’s that reason that I can interview President Zelensky on the front lines on a very challenging day for his country, where he’s making life and death decisions. And it’s because people trust what I say. And they know that I’m not going to take a side. And I think that is lost sometimes in the industry today. And I think it’s very, very important that we remember our role as journalists. And I just think that it actually opens a lot of doors when you conduct yourself that way. Because people know, I’m not there to hurt you, I’m not there to help you, I’m there to tell people exactly what you do. I’m going to hold you accountable for what you say.

Are you ever worried about kidnapping when you are interviewing groups that are known for that?

Sure, I’ve worried about it. There was a time in 2019 where I had been shooting this feature story — I don’t know if you remember the Great Return Marches that took place on the Gaza border — thousands of Palestinians would go to the border, they would clash with Israeli forces, Israeli snipers would be on the border shooting people who were throwing sometimes explosives, sometimes firing small arms, and sometimes just demonstrating. Again, nuance. That was the nuance we provided then that people didn’t like. Nuance. You have to just provide an accurate picture of what’s happening. But the point is, we were shooting a feature story, and I remember it being so slow in Gaza that my producer and I went to the zoo in Deir al-Balah the day before this other conflict started because there was nothing going on. And we had just filmed at this military parade that Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades had done, and we had nothing to do, so we went to this zoo. And then I got a call and text that morning — I think it was a Tuesday morning — basically, the Israelis had killed a guy named Baha Abu al-Ata, an Islamic Jihad rocket commander. And this led to days of fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad. And there were Israeli airstrikes. I was in Gaza City at the time. The army said, the border is closed, you’re stuck there. And I was reporting, as I report all around the world, exactly what’s happening. And there was a time when a rocket misfired, and it hit a human rights building. And Amnesty International tweeted that the Israelis were striking a human rights building. I said, it’s not true. I was across the street when it happened. We went out and we filmed — it was a rocket that misfired. Interestingly, we see a lot of this back-and-forth information war currently taking place in the conflict that’s going on now. But the point is that Hamas was not happy that I reported what happened. And they called me into their intelligence office and questioned me about what I was doing there and accused me of spying and all sorts of things. I write about this in Black Saturday. But I said, look, we’re doing the news. We’re going to report exactly what happens. And we did. And during that time, I also reported, interestingly, from Shifa Hospital, which has now been a key subject in the current conflict. We reported on the civilians who were killed. I remember in that same week that I was stuck inside Gaza, five children were killed in an Israeli airstrike, and we went to their funerals. Again, I’m not here to take sides. I’m here to tell people what’s going on. That’s all I can do.