Piers Morgan Uncensored - "Not Quite So Innocent!" Mike Huckabee On Killed Journalists & Gaza Occupation

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

Tens of thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv this weekend against Netanyahu’s plan to fully occupy the Gaza strip, which even senior IDF commanders oppose. But the Israeli Prime Minister has doubled down in an extraordinary press conference, as Australia today joined the UK, France and Canada in announcing it will recognise a Palestinian state within weeks. He insisted that the media has been using ‘fake’ pictures of starving children in Gaza and also said that more journalists will now be allowed in, albeit under strict IDF supervision. Within hours of announcing this, Israel said it had killed five Al-Jazeera journalists based in Gaza City. The IDF says it has evidence that one of them, Anas al-Sharif, was a terrorist. Joining Piers Morgan to discuss this is US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, spokesman for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Chapin Fay and editor-in-chief of Zeteo News Mehdi Hasan. Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent and supported by: Birch Gold: Visit https://birchgold.com/piers to get your free info kit on gold. OneSkin: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code PIERS at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Riverbend Ranch: Visit https://riverbendranch.com/ | Use promo code PIERS for $20 off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you look at the people from Hamas when they get photographed, they're well fed. None of them are hungry. I guarantee you look at their faces, look at their bodies. And instead of food, they could use some Ozypik. One thing that stood out to me was when he said he spent as much time with Netanyahu as he spent with his own wife, which explains probably a great deal why the Trump administration is so pro-Netanyahu and all in on everything Netanyahu is doing. His ready, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doubling down under an avalanche of international pressure.

Australia today joined the United Kingdom, France and Canada in announcing it will recognize a Palestinian state within weeks. Tens of thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv this weekend against his plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, which even senior IDF commanders oppose. Netanyahu says that Israel has no other choice. This was one of many dubious claims made an extraordinary press conference yesterday. This is a New York Times cover photo.

On the front page of Muhammad Zachariah Ayub and his mother. Muhammad Zachariya Ayub is suffering from a genetic illness, which you're familiar with. It's called cerebral palsy. His mother is well-fed, and his brother is healthy. I'm looking right now into the possibility of a governmental suit against the New York Times because this is outrageous. Of course, the correction was postage ties. I don't know where it was buried.

But this is outrageous. These are the three most celebrated photos, and they're all fake. Well, their clarification, of course, was that the boy had pre-existing conditions as well as severe malnutrition. The fact he was also emaciated is undeniable, as is the starvation crisis in Gaza and the scandal of the AIDS site killings, both of which Israel continues to deny all the same. Netanyahu also said that more journalists will now be allowed into Gaza, albeit under strict IDF supervision, and is already spinning the horrors they will see. And the other thing you'll see is physical destruction. And the physical destruction is not because Israel is destroying structures with people in there. That's not what's happening.

Israel, in fact, is clearing the population, as in Rafah. But the Hamas terrorists who may stay in those areas will be trapped just about every single building. Not every single building, but a lot of them. And every road and every street, and every junction, every intersection. So one of the things that we do is we place basically old APC armed personnel carriers with tons of explosives, and we detonate them, and they set off all the booby traps. That's why you see the destruction. Well, by most estimates, Israel has dropped at least 85,000 tons of explosives on Gaza

in the most intensive bombing campaigns since the Second World War. Israel itself said in October last year it has bombed 40,000 targets. That is why you will see the destruction. And within hours of announcing that more journalists will be allowed in, Israel said that they killed five Al Jazeera journalists based in Gaza City. The IDF says it has evidence that one of them, Anas al-Shareef, was a terrorist. The BBC, among many other news organisations,

says that evidence is not convincing. Over the past few days, Israel's plan for total occupation has been condemned by the UK, France, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Qatar, the UAE, the United Nations, and the European Union. Only the United States seems to be now publicly backing Netanyahu. It's possible that only the U.S. can make him change course, but will they? Well, joining me now is the United States Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Ambassador, welcome to Uncensored.

Thank you very much. Great to be with you, peers. On August 6th, you posted the following on your ex-account. Welcome to kindergarten, Pearce Morgan, as Douglas Murray welcomes you to preschool about Hamas, Israel and the war in Gaza. When Arab League calls on Hamas to disarm and let all hostages go, it's time to figure out who the real bad guys are. Now, look, I don't want to get into an argument

about your characterization of my school level at the moment. However, what I would say is, let's just start this, Ambassador, by May, by I think me laying out my view about this war and you tell me where you differ and then we can get to where we are now because you may find that we're a little closer than you think. My view has been very strongly from October the 7th that Israel had a fundamental right and indeed moral duty and imperative to defend its people, particularly given that Hamas said on the record after October the 7th, we want to keep doing this. So on that, I think we're in

full agreement. I also believe that Hamas, along with what the Arab League says, should disarm, let all the hostages go and play no further role in any government of Gaza ever. So I think they've abrogated that right after what they did on October the 7th. I also believe, however, that the way that Israel has been prosecuting this war this year in particular has seemed to me to have gone past a point of self-defense and into something very different. And that's what I wanted to explore with you, I think, because you're there and you have a very good understanding, I think, of what is going on on the ground. And we can get to that in a moment. But my criticism of Israel is not about the country. It's not about the people. My criticism is very

specifically about the Israeli government and the way it's prosecuting the war, because it seems to me that the strategy this year, which has involved a three-month blockade in which they stopped food and aid going into Gaza, which many viewed as a... a criminal act against the civilian population. But notwithstanding that, that actually what Israel's done has relentlessly bombarded Gaza in its attempt to take out the remaining Hamas fighters.

But by doing so, it has not succeeded in having any hostages released since February. And it doesn't appear to have been defeating Hamas. So my question for you, I think, off the top, is why are you convinced, as you seem to be, that this new strategy of, occupying Gaza City and continuing a relentless bombardment of the population in Gaza is going to be any more successful than what we've seen this year so far, which has not, to my mind, been successful.

Pears, you've given me a lot to unpack right there, so let me see if I can do it. First of all, you're right, there's a lot of things you just said with which we agree. So I'm going to take you out of kindergarten. I'm going to put you all away to the second grade. I think you deserve that. So we'll start here. Thank you. I think it's important to understand that there's one there's one bad guy in all this and it's Hamas. And that's what I've said repeatedly. I've watched European countries put so much pressure on Israel because they don't like the way they're prosecuting the war. Whether people like the way they're prosecuting the war, it is their war. They dumped an enormous

amount of humanitarian aid and food in prior to the blockade. It would have been more than enough to feed them throughout the blockade. But the problem was that Hamas was stealing the food. One of the reasons that Israel stopped the just almost unlimited supply of food going in was because Hamas was profiting off of it. They made $500 million last year selling it. And one of the things that was so outrageous was because they would steal the food. By the UN's own numbers, about 88 to 89 percent of the food going in has been stolen or looted. So that's means that the people weren't getting the food, and I'll tell you who else wasn't getting the food, the hostages. I know you saw the video of the hostages a week ago when Hamas posted this hideous,

disgusting video of hostages being tortured, being starved, and being forced to dig their own graves. They're not getting any of that food. So the problem has come that all the pressure from European countries and even Canada has been focused on Israel rather than focused on Hamas. And what I said in the tweet, and I know you didn't like it that much, but I was having a little fun with it. The point being, the Arab League unanimously said it's Hamas that ought to disarm. It's Hamas that ought to give up and recognize that they have no future. And they need to let all of the hostages go, not dribbling out. They need to let them all go at one time. I think Israel is right to call for that. To be honest with you, you mentioned about the

plan to take Gaza City. We don't know how that's going to go. It could go sideways. I think everybody understands there's no guarantee that it will go well. I do know firsthand that Israel has put offer after offer after offer on the table in negotiations trying to get some type of diplomatic settlement. But Hamas is not interested in that. And it was just a little over a week ago that the U.S. decided they're not serious and got up and walked away and said there's not going to be a negotiation that is going to result in the release of the hostages. Now, after Israel has said, okay, we're going to move in more militarily, take Gaza City. Suddenly, Hamas says, okay, maybe we should meet. We'll have some more discussions. So one has to wonder, are they really serious about ending this?

are they really serious about doing it in a way that President Trump was very clear about. Hamas can't stay and Hamas has no future in governing Gaza. That's important because leaving Hamas, even a little bit, is like leaving the Nazis in Germany after World War II. And I don't think anybody thinks that's a good idea. There's a lot going on with the global economy. It's entirely reasonable to wonder what the effect will be on your savings and investments. Consider diversifying with gold through Birch Gold Group.

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Consider diversifying a portion of your savings into gold. That way, if the Feg can't stay ahead of the curve, at least you can stay ahead for yourself. Well, I completely agree with about that. So I think it's important that people understand watching this, that we do agree about. about a lot of the fundamental principles here. Hamas are the absolute bad guys in this war.

They started this, and they should absolutely have no place in governing Gaza afterwards. But that doesn't mean that Israel can't also be held to, in my opinion, a higher standard than a terrorist organization. And Israel should expect, as the only democracy in the Middle East, to be held to a higher standard. And that's why the way that Israel behaves in the way it prosecutes this war, has come under such intense scrutiny.

And I would just ask you as the ambassador there for the United States, that it must concern you when you see Germany, heavily critical now, of what Israel is doing, the United Kingdom, Italy, today calling the plans for the occupation of Gaza City a potential disaster. France, you know, most, obviously, most other Middle Eastern countries you'd expect them to, but so many of Israel's historic allies lining up now to say they have serious concerns about what is now happening in Gaza.

Does that not give you pause for thought, Ambassador? It certainly does, but perhaps in a slightly different way than you're feeling it. I wish those same countries would recognize that by them calling out Israel specifically and barely mentioning not only Hamas, but not even mentioning the hostages, if at all, maybe slightly, what they have done is empowered Hamas. And I think you probably saw the interview that Secretary Rubio did over the weekend. And one of the things he pointed out was the moment that these European countries started calling for a Palestinian state. And when they started saying, Israel needs to do things differently, Hamas walked away from all of the negotiations and discussions.

Because in their minds, hey, they're winning. They're winning because the allies of Israel are spending more time attacking Israel and questioning the way they're doing things than they are in questioning Hamas. And I want to point out something. I don't think most people have a clue of that. Israel doesn't just go in and bomb the ever-loven bejesus out of Gaza. They send messages, leaflets, they give warnings to people, they tell them where they're going to hit, and they urge them. get out of this area, there's a rocket launcher there, there's a base there, there's a military structure there, and they're very specific, and they tell people to get out. Hamas takes its civilians and herds them to those very places that have been announced by the Israelis as a target.

To be fair, I love my country, I serve my country, but my country, the United States, we don't tell adversaries where we're going to hit in advance of it. And Israel has done that consistently for as long as I can remember back in the previous Gaza war in 2012, 2014. And quite frankly, nobody ever says that's kind of a spectacular thing to do. Yes, there's a lot of people that shouldn't have been killed or injured, and they are. It is a tragedy. But the tragedy started on October the 7th. And I think this is one of those areas where apparently you and I do agree.

It started with the raping of women in front of their children, the beheading and burning in ovens of babies, lighting elderly people on fire as they sat in their wheelchairs as their families were forced to watch it. And all of this, we know it happened, despite what some people deny. We know it happened because the Hamas terrorists, the savages, they videotaped it themselves because they were really proud of what they were doing. and they took it back and they showed it to their families and they showed it to the other people around them because they wanted them to see what they had done in the absolute heinous, unspeakable murder of innocent Jewish people who had done nothing to them and they just woke up one Shabbat morning and here they come. And the horror that was unleashed upon them is equivalent to 40,000 Americans being slaughtered, and massacred. And I wish more Americans put in that context that over 1,200 people murdered that

morning is the equivalent of 40,000 Americans. And I promise you, if someone came and killed 40,000 Americans in one day, the difficulty would be to restrain Americans from wanting to do what Israel has been accused of, but absolutely has not done. And that's generally. I've said this many times. Peers, if Israel is trying to commit genocide, they're really honestly bad at it. Because they could have done genocide on October the 8th. We know they have the military capacity, but they haven't. They have tried to spare civilian life, tried to contain the collateral damage,

but they don't get any credit for that, appreciation for that. Instead, they get condemned by the very people that the very people that ought to be their allies and that ought to understand that if the same thing happened, whether it was in France or Great Britain or Canada or the Netherlands, I assure you that the people of those nations would not say, gee, we just don't like the way that you're fighting those who did this to us. Well, look, I agree with everything you've said about Hamas. They're a despicable terrorist organization and what they did on that infamous day will live in history as one of the worst terror attacks imaginable. However, when it comes to this idea that

you're promoting there that Israel has been restrained in the way it's gone about its response, I would take issue with that because, as you said, 1,200 people were killed that day. It was horrendous. But in response, Israel has now killed north of 60,000 people, including over 20,000 children. Let me pause. Let me pause there. When you use the term 60,000, let's remember that that figure comes from the Gaza health ministry, which is Hamas. And we don't know if there's anywhere near accurate. Plus, it also includes the terrorists. It's not just civilians, not 60,000 civilians. We don't know how many it is. It could be 15,000. It could be 50. It could be 60. And three-fourths of those could be the terrorists. So those numbers are a little hard to validate because they do include. the terrorists themselves, and I'm not sure that that's a casualty that most of us are going to lose any sleepover and weep over. Well, no, I don't, okay, so let me pause you.

Let me pause you on. Okay, let me pause you then, because I would say, yes, that is correct. No one's going to lose any sleep over Hamas terrorist being killed. I have had other people on the pro-Israeli side tell me definitively that they believe at least 25,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed out of that total. But oddly, they can never tell me how many civilians have been killed. So it seems almost either that the IDF is only collating the numbers of enemy that is killing in terms of Hamas terrorists are not collating the civilian deaths, which would seem unusual.

Or, and this is another thing I would put to you about the Gaza Health Ministry, that historically, before October the 7th, as you know, most of the Gaza Health Ministry figures that they reported in terms of casualties, because unlike the Israeli side, they name all the people in lists that they report and publish, that actually historically, they have turned out to be broadly accurate and been accepted by Israel.

So if your position is now that suddenly after October the 7th, the Gaza Health Ministry numbers cannot be relied upon, there are many who would respond by saying, well, Ambassador, hang on a second, because actually, historically, their numbers have turned out to be broadly correct. and therefore we should accept them as broadly accurate. What would your response be to that?

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I'm not familiar with the pre-October 7th Gaza Health News, ministry credibility. I would say that post-October the 7th, their credibility is pretty poor. I remember when Israel was accused of bombing a hospital and killing a bunch of people, and that made all the headlines across the world, and Israel was vilified for it. Turns out it wasn't anything they shot. It was a Hamas rocket that went astray. That's what blew up in the hospital. Israel had nothing to do with it. So did those figures get counted in there? Here's the point I will think we can't agree on. We may argue about the numbers.

Too many people have been killed in Gaza. Too many innocent civilians have been killed there. But I blame Hamas for their stubbornness. I blame them for putting their people in front of the targets, not even trying to protect them. In fact, trying to see that they did get killed because it's good for business for them. And that's what makes them the monsters they are. They're not protecting their innocent.

they're putting their innocent in harm's way intentionally because they don't care if they get killed. And when I was in Gaza, a little over a week ago, and talked to Gazans inside, what I was really amazed by was they didn't hate the IDF, which I would have kind of thought they might. They loved America, which I was glad they did. But what really was interesting was that every single one of them said that they had had a family member who had been murdered by Hamas. They hated Hamas. They wanted nothing to do with them. They wanted them gone.

They wanted them out of their sight, out of their country, out of their control, because every one of them had personally experienced heartache in their families because of what Hamas had done. The problem, it seems to me, is that you have obviously horrifically bad actors on the Hamas side here. No one can dispute that. I won't dispute anything you've said in relation to Hamas at all. We are completely aligned on what they are and what they represent

and the existential threat they pose to Israel and to Jews. I don't make any doubt about that whatsoever. The problem is that many people believe that Benjamin Netanyahu has been held a ransom in his own government to very hard right members of that government, led by the finance minister Bezalel Smodrich, who said in a radio interview yesterday that he and Netanyahu disagree

on establishing Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. My plan, he said, is for large parts of Gaza to remain under our control and sovereignty, and we can also settle them. That's not the Prime Minister's plan, I admit. But I don't think this is the right time to have that debate. I'm conducting it behind closed doors. I'm not blowing everything up over it. Now, what he's also said publicly in the last month is that he believes that Gaza should be cleansed

of Palestinians. And what people are saying, Ambassador, is that there are people on this cabinet, in this government, who have very senior positions, very, like the finance minister, and Benghavir is another one, who make no pretense about their desire, both in Gaza and the West Bank,

to expel the Palestinians. And when he talked so openly here about a plan to remain, for Gaza to remain under the control of Israel and to take control of sovereignty and settle Israelis in Gaza, many people think that has been the plan all along. What would you say to people like Smodrich, who are now openly talking about that being the real ambition here?

Israel, like every other country I'm aware of, and certainly like the U.S. and the U.K., for that matter, have people in a variety of positions on the political spectrum. Israel is no different. It's a democracy. People are able to speak. They're able to say things that others will disagree with. It's one of the hallmarks of, frankly, a democracy, one of the hallmarks of liberty, something we celebrate that difference.

We may not celebrate every point of view. I don't celebrate every point of view that I hear coming out of the mouths of American elected officials who are in Congress. But here's what I do know, and this is something that, of course, you're aware of as well. The prime minister has been very consistent, never indicating he wanted to go and move. people into Gaza. He's been explicitly clear that what he would like to see is once it's controlled, once Hamas is gone, once that dust has settled, and there's a lot of dust, I can tell you, from having just been there, he wants to see an international coalition that would include largely, and perhaps mostly, with the exception of the United States, Arab partners, people who would have

a governing hand and a governing role for a matter of years until the whole place can be built back. That's what he has stated. So, yeah, there's going to be differences of opinion with the prime minister within his own government. That's kind of normal. It's what we have in America. Heck, we've got some Republicans in the Congress that don't always agree with President Trump, much to my chagrin, because I think that if they're going to be Republican, they ought to agree with the leader. And if they disagree, they ought to do it behind closed doors. I'll leave the Israelis to their own devices as to how they divvy up their opinions because that's really not my job to jump in the middle of their business, but I will jump into the middle of ours and say it makes me uncomfortable

sometimes when I hear people in the U.S. government who have views that I scratch my head and say, where'd they come up with that? So I can only speak to that. I'm the U.S. ambassador to Israel, not the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. What do you say to those who believe that Netanyan who decided to go to war to destroy the people of Israel, to sacrifice hostages, soldiers, and the values of the country of Israel? I think it's ludicrous. I've been with the prime minister almost as much as I have been with my own wife

since I have arrived here as ambassador. And anyone who would say that the prime minister wants this war to continue, that he doesn't care what happens, I tell you it's nonsense. Most people know that his... perhaps closest aide, Ron Dermar, his minister of strategic affairs. They know him. He was the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. What they may not know is he has two sons fighting in Gaza right now. What they may not know is that the current ambassador of Israel to the United States, Ambassador

Leiter, a wonderful human being and an incredible diplomat and statesman. One of his sons was killed in Gaza. many members of the senior cabinet of the prime minister who are right now in Gaza in combat, and for anyone to suggest that the prime minister is enjoying this, are indifferent to it, or that he's immune to the suffering. Over 700 IDF soldiers have died in Gaza trying to avenge what happened on October 7. And I haven't been anywhere in this country where I didn't run into someone who had a son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew, a brother, sister, father, mother, who was not directly impacted either

in death or with a severe injury. I mean, it's just something every day I see it. And every week, I'm talking to hostage families. Not only those from the United States, we still have two American hostages, deceased, but their families want the remains back so they can give them a proper burial. Hamas won't let even the deceased hostages out. But I just have to strongly disagree and push back on the notion. And I know that's not your position. You're not stating it. But yes, I hear it here.

I hear it in many places. I can tell you that based on not only the conversations I have, but the reality of the number of people at the most senior levels of Israeli government whose own children are dodging bullets in Gaza, it's nonsense to say that they want the war to go on and that they don't care. I mean, that quote that I read you was from Inav Zangulka, who's the mother of hostage Matan Zangulka.

Look, I understand the hostage families have a grief I don't understand. I can't grasp it. I'm a parent. I've tried to put myself in their position, but I really can't. And I pray to God, I never have to. The grief that they are enduring and continue to endure. door after 700 days of this, 22 straight months, is just beyond my capacity to even get my arms around. So I'm not going to pretend that I understand it. And sure, they have strong opinions.

They want their kids back. Who wouldn't? And maybe they express it in ways that show a sense of outrage and frustration and exasperation. And I think we can all be sympathetic and not be critical of them because they have views that might be critical of the government. But one thing I hope we never forget is that because they live in Israel, they can be incredibly critical of the government. They can say the harshest things they want. And nobody will come to their home and shoot them in the head for doing it. And there are a lot of places in this neighborhood, in the Middle East, where if you were to say the things about the head of government that people say about this prime minister or about other people in the government, you wouldn't see breakfast tomorrow

because you would never live to see another day. And that's another piece of this whole big picture that I wish more people, particularly those who are a part of Western civilization, who value freedom, who value the free speech that is, well, it's supposed to be a hallmark of democracy, although I think in some places we're losing it. But that's something we should accept and be grateful for, even if it's a problem. makes us incredibly uncomfortable. Are you ready to experience the best steak you've ever had?

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Order directly from Riverbendranch.com and use the promo code peers to get $20 off your first order. That's riverbendranch.com, code peers, P-I-E-R-S. But be prepared, once you taste it, you will definitely be coming back for more. Once again, that's riverbendranch.com, code peers. I mean, you talk there about people not being afraid to speak their mind in Israel because they won't get people coming around and killing them, as we know Hamas due to people that speak out. But you say this just a few hours after the IDF has killed five,

journalists from Al Jazeera amongst seven people who were killed in a direct and targeted strike in Gaza City. Al Jazeera called it a targeted assassination and a blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom. Now, the IDF immediately put out a statement saying that 28-year-old correspondent, Anas Al-Sharif, who would become extremely well-known in Gaza for his broadcasting during the war, they said that he served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas and produced documents, including personal rosters, lists of terrorist training courses, phone directories and salary documents that they said proved he belonged to Hamas.

But since then, a number of journalists, including many from the BBC, have said that this evidence, to their eyes, a very experienced war correspondence, is not convincing. And the reason this matters so much is that if the IDF has deliberately targeted a group of journalists in Gaza City, and it turns out that that man Al-Sharif was not a Hamas terrorist, then that would constitute a war crime. I also would point there are photos where this alleged journalist is hugging the head of Hamas and smiling and yucking it up for the cameras. There is evidence that indicates that he was an asset for Hamas. And

If it's proven that he isn't, then that's a different calculation. But right now, the evidence points to the fact that he was. And why would someone pose as a journalist? I mean, I know why they would do it. But I think that's incredibly despicable if somebody is pretending to be just reporting the news, but is actually being a participant in the outcome. It's like if a referee at an American football game, instead of wearing the striped jersey of the referee,

decides to put on a team jersey and actually root for one team over the other and aid and abet one team over the other. But the big difference is that in football, it's just a game, really doesn't matter. This matters. People are dying there every day. And anyone who helps Hamas, who is sympathetic to them, who aids and abets them, I can understand they would be a target. But there is no actual hard evidence that he was a hamas.

terrorist. The only evidence appears to be old pictures of him with Hamas leaders, of which there would be many people in Gaza who would do pictures of that nature with the governing body. This is prior to October the 7th. I think judging people as terrorists prior to October the 7th, when this was a government that was being financially supported by Israel, amongst others, to the tune of billions of dollars, is pretty disingenuous. And the reason this has inflamed tension so much, both in Gaza, and around the world is twofold ambassador. One is that, as you know, foreign journalists have been banned from entering Gaza for the last two years since October the 7th, which is in direct contravention of how almost every war zone ever in modern times has operated in relation to foreign journalists being allowed to do their jobs.

So it's been impossible to verify a lot of these claims that the IDF makes about incidents like this. But secondly, if it turns out this guy was not actually a Hamas terrorist, then what has happened here is that a group of journalists have been targeted deliberately in a war crime. And this is not the first group of journalists in Gaza have been killed. Over 200 journalists now. Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, which is more than the number of journalists killed in pretty much every other post-year-old. Second World War

put together. At what point are you concerned about what appears to be an ongoing attack on press freedom? And would you like to see Western journalists,

international journalists, allowed in to freely operate, not embedded with the IDF, but freely operate and do their jobs so that we can actually get to the bottom of so many of the claims that Israel's been making?

Well, I want to again say, I don't have the evidence that you seem to think you have regarding this guy's innocence. I don't know. If I have to take the word of the Israelis or Hamas, I'll be honest. I'm going to lean with the Israelis far quicker than I'm going to lean with Hamas. And I do know that I don't think that they would just go target a journalist just so they could take him out because they didn't like what he's saying. I think they're a much better country than that. They have a much better moral code than that. And I'm going to give them credit for that.

If somebody can prove that they targeted the journalist who was a completely innocent guy and all he was trying to do was objectively report the news and he never had any affiliation association with Amas, he really was not aiding and abetting them, he really did not have a relationship with him, he wasn't a part of them in some way, then sure, let's investigate that, let's bring that to the surface and hold people accountable. But we don't know that. And I think it's a little disingenuous for us to make the conclusion that this was just an innocent journalist when there's a lot of evidence to point to the fact that he was not quite so innocent when it comes to his relationship with Hamas, a bloodthirsty cult who could not even get enough of the blood on their hands, October the 7th. Final question for you, Ambassador. I'm about to interview a spokesman for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Now, according to the United Nations, 1373 Palestinians have been killed since the 27th of May while seeking food. 859 of those died in the vicinity of GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys. more than 170 charities and NGOs have called for the GFHF to be shut down,

including Oxfam and saved the children. They say Israeli forces and armed groups routinely open fire on Palestinians seeking aid. MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said the GHF locations have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty and become scenes of orchestrated killing. And there have been 212 deaths separately reported from, malnutrition in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry that we've discussed earlier, including 98 children. So before I speak to the GHF spokesman, what do you say about this? I've seen your response about this before that you've not seen independent evidence that these people were all killed

by the IDF. But there is a growing sense that the IDF are routinely shooting towards, these very large groups of obviously hungry people, otherwise they wouldn't be stampeding for food, and that that again, if that is what they're doing, then that again is a war crime. Well, first of all, I dispute the numbers because a lot of those have already been proven to be untrue. For example, a few Sundays ago, it's probably been maybe a month ago, early on in the GHF effort, which, by the way, is a U.S. effort. Those are special forces guys. Those are our guys. and it was set up because President Trump said, get the food in there to the people,

but get it in a way that Hamas can't steal it because they were stealing so much of it. And that left people hungry, and it also left them dependent upon buying it from Hamas. On that particular Sunday, they said 27 people had been killed at a GHF site. Well, it turns out we had video. Not only was no one killed, no one even got hurt. Nobody even stumbled over and broke an arm.

it was utterly false, but front pages from the New York Times and the Washington Post and the BBC and CNN all ran with the story. And when it was proven that it was untrue, they all sort of did an Emily Lattella and said, oh, never mind. And they put a little bitty disclaimer out. And some of them edited their stories a little bit. But I think when you talk to the GHF people, the ones who have been out there risking their lives to get food to people, they're going to give you a very different perspective. there. I watched what they did. I watched the way in which they did it. And I think it is a much better process and it is work. People are not stealing those boxes of food that are designed to give a family of five food for eight to ten days. Over 115 million meals have already been served.

And we're getting ready to scale up the operation to put more feeding sites. This is while the UN's process had 900 trucks parked in the sunshine. with food rotting and the pallets of food, thousands of pallets of food enough for a year or more of food, set there in the sun because the UN didn't feel good about the manner in which it was going to be delivered and taken into the country. When their own numbers indicate that 88% of what they take in gets stolen, I wouldn't be critical of the GHF. In fact, I think people ought to be grateful that they are getting the food to the people. And I'd say again, when I was at those feeding sites,

and when I talked to Gazans, I did not hear anything other than, we love America, we're glad you've done this, and this is the first time we're getting food that we didn't have to pay for. Why does Hamas hate GHF? One of the things they demanded in one of the negotiations just two and a half weeks ago

was that GHF had to be shut down. Why would Hamas want to shut it down? I'll tell you why. Because GHF method of getting food has really hurt their capacity to control the food market, and it's costing them money. Otherwise, they would say, sure, go ahead and bring the food. And all we care about is people getting to eat. They don't care about people getting to eat.

They care that they eat. And if you look at the people from Hamas when they get photographed, they're well-fed. None of them are hungry. I guarantee you look at their faces, look at their bodies. And instead of food, they could use some OZMPIC. But yeah, there's some real deprivation in that country, but it's not because GHF is killing people. What the people told me, it was Hamas that was shooting the folks coming to get the food,

not only at the GHF sites if they could get to them, but also at the UN sites. That's just a reality. I think you're going to hear it from the GHF representative when he talks to you. I appreciate the tenor of our conversation. I think it's an important conversation. I do think that you and I agree about many things in this war. We disagree about some of them, but I do think this kind of conversation is really important,

and I appreciate you joining me. Thank you very much. Thank you, Pierce. It's been a pleasure to be with you. Well, Medea Saan will be joining us to give his response to all of that shortly, but we're going to turn now to the controversy surrounding the U.S.-Israeli-Aid distribution organization, the GHF and joining me as the spokesman for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Chapman Faye. Good morning to you.

Thanks for having me, Pierce. You were probably listening there to Ambassador Harkabee, a bit of a wide-ranging interview, but he was emphatic about what he believes is the successful operation of the GHF. As you know from what I was saying in response, there are many people who are not as infathing. supportive and believe that what has been going on with these food lines has been appalling. And they believe that 1373 people have been killed in these vast crowds of people as they're desperately trying to get to food. What is your response to that? Well, first, I think your audience deserves to know a little bit about what the Ghazi

humanitarian foundation is and what we're doing on the ground. We are an independent, neutral humanitarian aid organization with one mission and one mission alone peers to feed the people of Gaza in a way that Hamas or anyone else cannot steal it. And we've done that successfully, safely, and securely to the tune of today we'll reach almost 117 million meals put directly into the hands of the Gazans who need it most. You also have to remember that this is one of the most complex, if not the most complex humanitarian crises of our lifetime. and it's happening in a war zone. We do not deny that there are casualties happening throughout Gaza,

but there have been no casualties on our sites other than two terrorist attacks, one in which a Hamas-style grenade was thrown over the Burman injured to American workers who are okay, and a Hamas-famented stampede that tragically and unfortunately wound up killing 19 aid seekers because they were trampled. And I'd just like to tell two stories from that day to show you that our security personnel are just simply not trained to use lethal force in crowd control. They have shot into the air on occasion for crowd control purposes, the most recent of which was that day, so one of our security personnel, former Marine, could run into the crowd and save a child's life.

Also that day, Hamas pistol, Hamas-style pistol was pulled on a security personnel. He did not raise his weapon. He ran at the man, tackled him, and disarmed him with non-lethal force. These security personnel are highly trained, highly intelligent, highly skilled, and they're hired, not because they know how to pull a trigger peers, but because they know how not to. Our sites are safe and secure, and we have been able to put 117 meals directly into the hands of the Gazans. And the other thing I would say is our model is unique. We use these secure distribution sites, and we use local GASN workers to help feed,

and they are the first instance of dealing with their friends, neighbors, and relatives in some cases. They work alongside our humanitarian people and our security personnel, all of whom are risking their lives to do one thing, to feed the people of Gaza. And I would also add that many of the local Gazaan workers, have to stay on site. They live on site because Hamas has put bounties on them and their family. So these people are literally risking their lives to feed people. And again, we've done so successfully and without any casualties on our sites. As you know, we had a GHF whistleblower, Anthony Aguilar, unscensored last week. Here's what he said.

To put civilians at risk and not safeguard their travel and their movement to areas to receive aid, whether it be water, clothing, medicine is a war crime. To put them in that situation, to put them in that deliberate danger is a war crime, to then fire at the crowds using live munitions, machine gun fire, rifle fire, motor fire to communicate with the crowd. And the IDF have said this on the record. Many IDF have said it. IDF witnesses to testimony in Gaza have said it, that they use shooting to communicate with the Palestinians. What is your response to that? Well, Mr. Aguilar is a proven liar, peers,

and any media outlet that amplifies his lies, which I'll get into, should issue public retractions. Mr. Aguilar was fired for cause after being reassigned multiple times because he could not hack the job and he was making the situation on the ground more dangerous and being distracting for his colleagues, who are still out there, by the way,

risking their lives to feed people. After he was fired, he continued to text his colleagues things like talking about how important the mission was, how successful the mission was, begging for his job back. He then applied for his job back officially, and then he started threatening. He texted many of his former colleagues and supervisors saying, I can be your best friend or I can be your worst enemy. And then he made good on those threats. If you go to GHF.org, you can see affidavits from his former colleagues who are still out there putting their lives on the line feeding people. people about how almost everything he said is false. And the last I will say is the Daily Wire just published an investigative piece this morning, which proves that his most sensational claim is false.

It's just not true. The things are not happening the way he says they are. I have been there, peers. You cannot see the crowd from outside the sites, even when you're on top of it. You cannot see the IDF. You cannot see what he claims to have seen, and he didn't. He's putting the entire mission in jeopardy. While he's looking for his 15 minutes of fame, his former colleagues are risking their lives, along with local Palestinian workers and humanitarian to feed the people of Gaza. That's our only mission. We've done it safely and securely, despite what Mr. Aguilar claims to have seen, which is false. These are honorable men and women, just like I told you, who put their lives on the line and do not use lethal force. They simply do not use lethal force for crowd control.

There have been no casualties. And the men and women who are putting their lives on the line, lives on the line to feed the people of Gaza should be commended for their efforts. Now, Pierce, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that everything is pretty in this situation. We've already talked about how this is an act of war zone and a very complex humanitarian crisis, and sometimes it's not pretty. But our model is working. And I would also recommend that anyone who is advocating for less aid, which is what you're advocating, when you advocate to shut down GHF, anyone who is advocating for less aid into the people, into Gaza, should be met with extreme skepticism.

Pierce, we have to stop pretending like there's only one way to feed people in Gaza. GHF is happy that boreate is going in. We're happy that there's airdrops. We're happy that the UN is starting to move its trucks after sitting on the sidelines and claiming starvation while their aid was rotting in the sun. I've seen it. I was there. Medical aid already expired.

But we are concerned about the dangerousness of their convoys. You can see it all over social media this week. Their convoys are getting immediately attacked by tens of thousands of hungry, desperate people, sometimes armed. You see them riding around with armed men on top of it. And as Ambassador Huckabee pointed out, the UN's own estimates say that only 6.5% of the aid in July got to where it's supposed to go. That's 93% being diverted appears. That's an A in getting your aid diverted. We have had zero aid diverted.

We have put 117 million meals directly into the people who need it the most. Just finally, how many of the 1373 Palestinians who have been killed while joining these lines for food? Do you believe we're killed by the IDF? So, again, you know, these numbers can't be verified. We can't verify who has killed anyone or that the numbers are accurate. The Gaza Ministry of Health puts out these numbers, and lots of times they're inflated, Lots of times they're just false. They don't distinguish between compatans and civilians. You and the ambassador had that debate over, you know, how to verify these. We believe every

casualty is regrettable and tragic. We are in favor of a ceasefire. Our job, our only job, is to feed the people of Gaza. And anyone who makes that or any group who makes that more difficult, we call them out. We have been particularly hard on the IDF and the government of Israel when they make that a job harder or more dangerous for the aid seekers in particular. So until the full need is met, peers, our people, men and women, alongside the local Palestinian workers, are going to keep feeding the people of Gaza until the full need is met. And we welcome the UN to join us and work with us. We have an open invitation to collaborate. And just another story I'll tell you. I have spoken inside Gaza to international aid truck drivers other than ours by the UN.

And they told us a story about how the day before, they tried to drive their trucks further into Gaza, and they were immediately shot at. They were worried for their lives. They were worried they were going to kidnap. The aid was immediately taken from them. They said they were lucky to be alive. And then they asked us, because I was there with our security personnel, they looked at us and said, can you provide security for us? And we said, of course we can. Our model is working.

We can, of course, work together. There's many ways to do that. We just had a press conference with our executive director who laid out many ways we could collaborate with. the UN. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has one mission to feed people, and we want to see more of it done by more organizations, and we are willing to collaborate and get it done successfully until the full need is met. Chad Bufay, thank you very much indeed for joining me. Appreciate it. Thank you, Pierce.

Well, I'm joined now by Medi Hassan, the founder and editor-in-chief. Duterteo, Medi, great to have you back on SET. I know you've been listening to both my interview with Ambassador Huckabee and with the Gaza humanitarian foundation. They put a lot on the record there in terms of their responses to all the criticism that's been coming. What was your response, first of all, to the interview with Ambassador Huckabee? Well, he said a lot. I think he's worked for nearly an hour. A lot of things that weren't true. One thing that stood out to me was when he said he spent as much time with Netanyahu as he spent with his own wife, which explains probably a great deal why the Trump administration is so pro

Netanyahu and all in on everything Netanyahu's doing. One name you and him didn't. really mentioned was Donald Trump. Trump has given Netanyahu, as we know, the green light to do the ethnic cleansing, to do the starvation, to do the killing. He recently said it's up to Israel to do whatever they want. But Mike Huckabee is a man who, just for your viewers, watching some context. This is a man who said there's no such thing as a Palestinian, says there's no such thing as the West Bank, says there's no such thing as a settlement, says there's no such thing as an occupation. He takes a very racist, dehumanizing view of Palestinians. He's a Christian nationalist, Christian Zionist, who supports Israel for theological reasons. And in that, in that,

with you, I just want to pick up a few things very quickly. The number of bareface lies, the ambassador told. He said multiple times Hamas is stealing the aid. As you pointed out, the New York Times spoke to multiple Israeli officials who say there is no evidence of systematic stealing of aid by Hamas. In fact, USAID, the US government's own aid department, did a study showing Hamas is not stealing the aid. The European Union did a study showing Hamas is not stealing the aid. The aid is being stolen. It's being stolen by gangs who are linked to Israel. So he's lying when he talks about Hamas stealing the aid. I was amazed to see him talk about beheaded babies and babies burned in ovens, which, as you know, Peers, because you got caught in that early on, was absolute bullshit put out by the Israelis.

It's a complete lie. Not only did he lie about babies being burned in ovens, an ambassador of the United States at this point, 22 months later telling that debunked hoax. He even claimed that it was done on video, which is not true. Show us the video. It doesn't exist. He also lied about the Israelis giving warnings to people before they bomb them. Every human rights group in the world says that's absolute BS. The Baca Cafe in Gaza City was bombed just last month. 30 people killed, a seaside cafe where they're having a children's birthday party, a boxer was killed, a sports star was killed, children were killed, no warning given. They dropped a 500-pound bomb on a crowded seaside cafe. And of course, he lied about Anasol Sharif and his crew.

He said that the evidence points to them being Hamas, as you pointed out, no one who's looked at any of the evidence provided by Israel says that's evidence of Hamas. All he had was that, oh, he was spotted taking a picture with the leadership of Hamas. So if you stand next to an accused terrorist or someone on the American terrorist watch list, that makes you a target because I would point out, Mike Pompeo is in a picture standing next to the Taliban. Donald Trump is in a recent picture standing next to the former leader of al-Qaeda in Syria? Is that what we're now crassifying as a justification for killing someone? A lot to unpack there. I think one of the more interesting things that's come out in the last 24 hours are the words once again of the finance minister Bezal-Smith.

Smodridge saying that his plan, a direct quote, his plan is for large parts of Gaza to remain under our control and sovereignty, and we can settle them. And this has been, I know it's been a fear that you have expressed from day one of this after October the 7th, that actually Israel and its hard right government ministers would move to try and take over Gaza and indeed the West Bank. You know, when you hear people like Smodrich, it's very hard to dispute that's exactly what he wants to do. It's very hard to dispute that this is a genocide and this is ethnic cleansing. I mean, they have said this on the record time and time again. US officials can come and dress this all up and talk about Hamas, but they've made it clear it's not about Hamas. It's about making Gaza Jewish again. These are their words.

As you mentioned, Smotrish has said this. Ben Gavir has said this. Eliahu, the heritage minister just said recently, we're wiping out Gaza. We're going to make it Jewish again. everyone's going to have to leave. Donald Trump himself, by the way, Mike Huckabee's boss has said everyone has to leave and they can't come back, is what he said to Fox in one interview. Huckabee, as I mentioned, is a Christian Zionist. He is a hardcore evangelical, who, if you had asked him about that, would probably support that stuff. I mean, his worldview,

messianic worldview, is based on all of the Jews coming together in the Holy Land, taking all the land, and then Jesus comes back. I mean, that is not something they hide. In fact, Huckabee, Pierce, was at an illegal West Bank settlement, Shiloh, in May, and he visited five heifers, five red cows sent from Texas, I believe, which I believe is part of the prediction, the prophecy for rebuilding the temple and bringing back the Jewish Messiah. I mean, this is the kind of circles he moves in these are the kind of beliefs and views he shares. And it's very worrying that Donald Trump, we know, peers, you and I, is not a religious man, is not a big Christian, but he's filled his administration with these kind of messian. these Christian evangelicals who say Israel right or wrong. You've got the Speaker of the House. Mike Johnson just went to Israel a few weeks ago, a few days ago, I think. And he visited an illegal West Bank settlement. You didn't get a chance to talk about the West Bank with Huckabee, which he believes

is not occupied. You have two American citizens peers killed in the West Bank in the last 30 days by settlers. Mike Huckabee is the American ambassador to Israel, as he proudly told, he said, I'm the America's ambassador to Israel. What's he done for them? They're American citizens. Isn't that the job of the U.S. ambassador to Israel to protect American citizens? in that country or in occupied territories by that country? Yeah, listen, I think the aggressive expansion of settlements in the West Bank is a crime. I made no pretense of that since they started to be doing this throughout the last two years. What did you make of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation spokesman interview?

Because there's a lot of misinformation being thrown around about the UN and the way they operated the food. that as I said to the ambassador, and as he rightly picked up on, the New York Times did an extensive report, which said that there was no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas. However, I'm under no illusion that, of course, Hamas would probably try and take as much as he could get his hands on, and I would assume they've been doing that reasonably regularly. There was just no evidence of a systematic thieving of all the UN food.

Do you think that Gaza humanitarian foundation is a force for good in Gaza, because it's getting some food to Garsons, or do you think it's not a force for good? So in terms of getting food to Garsons, let's just debunk something both the GHF guy and Huckabee said to you. They keep saying 110 million meals. That's since the end of May. We are in the beginning of August.

When you do the maths, or math here in the US, you need for three meals a day, right, for 2 million people, you need over 400 million meals in that time space. By the way, these are meals that have no water, no fuel. So you get the food, you can't cook them. How are you supposed to cook them? What are you supposed to drink with them? You don't get any water or fuel from the GHF.

Just these pre-packaged meals. And it's enough meals to cover, as they say, 110 million meals. But what you actually need of 400 million meals? So really, they've only provided a quarter of as much food as the people need and without any water or fuel. So they're just selective cherry picking of stats without any context. In terms of your question, let me answer it directly. No, it's not a force for good. It is a force for evil.

And that is not a word I use lightly, peers. I'm not one of these people who throws around evil all the time. But what we have seen in the last few weeks at these GF chef sites is evil. You are seeing people, hungry people coming for food, starved by Israel. And then when they come to the sites that they're told to come to to to get the food, they are then shot at and killed, right? Killed, hundreds of them. And by the way, again, they keep saying, well, we don't know what happened, misinformation.

Actually, no, the Guardian just did an investigation over the weekend. People can go read it based on 30 different videos. They've identified Israeli gunfire at Palestinians at these sites. We have Israeli soldiers telling herets. to fire on people at the aid sites. We have American contractors who told the Associated Press, we saw our colleagues opening fire, live ammunition on Palestine. How evil do you have to be to starve people

and then tell them to come get aid in the middle of a war zone, these GHF sites are in the middle of a war zone, and then shoot and kill them as they come to get the aid? I mean, that is, you know, you think about Rwanda, you think about the Balkans, you think about the worst genocides in the last 50, 60, 70 years. This is up there with them, if not beyond. It's the most evil thing I have seen in my life in recent years.

Medea, so always good to have you on Unsensor. Thank you very much. Piers Morgan Unsensit is proudly independent. The only boss around here is me. If you enjoy our show, we ask the only one simple thing. Hit subscribe on YouTube and follow Pierce Morgan Unsensored on Spotify and Apple Podcast. And in return, we will continue our mission to inform, irritate and entertain. And we'll do it all for free.

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