Famously, the slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print” graces the front page of every New York Times edition. The slogan was coined at the end of the 19th century by the paper’s publisher, Adolph Ochs. Of course, in today’s hyper-globalized world, the slogan is wishful thinking. No paper could realistically cover all the important news stories of the day.
Still, it would be hard to argue that outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and others adequately cover even those stories they do print. They often devote precious space to emotive or opinionated claims, while omitting highly material and relevant information that sheds important new light.
Provided below are three important, but underreported, stories bearing on Israel and the Middle East that media consumers should know this week.
1) Colombia Set to Withdraw Intervention in ICJ Case Against Israel
Colombian President-Elect Abelardo de la Espriella said that Bogota would be withdrawing its intervention in South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The announcement came after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met with his Colombian counterpart, Omar Bola Escobar, last week. “Colombia will return to a responsible position in the international arena, including within UN bodies, and will withdraw its involvement in the case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague,” Espriella’s office said in a statement relayed by Bogota’s Foreign Ministry.
I was pleased to meet with @omarbula, the incoming Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, in Washington.
We outlined a detailed roadmap for the full and immediate restoration of diplomatic and economic relations between our two countries immediately following the inauguration… pic.twitter.com/u7i698cIer
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 15, 2026
South Africa’s case claims that Israel’s defensive war against Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza violated the Genocide Convention. Israel launched its campaign in response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, atrocities in the south of Israel. Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages back into the coastal enclave of Gaza.
South Africa’s “urgent” case against Israel, filed in 2023, is still ongoing, in large part because the African nation requested an 18-month extension to find evidence for its own accusations. Contrary to a common misconception, the court has not found there is a “plausible” case of genocide. Israel has rejected the allegations and accused South Africa of deliberately distorting the genocide convention for political means.
Israeli media outlets were primarily the only ones who reported on this development, which may start a trend of other countries taking similar action. Colombia submitted its initial declaration of its intention to intervene in the case April 2024 under former president Gustavo Petro, who was vehemently anti-Israel.
Petro severed ties with Jerusalem in May 2024. But that’s changing this week. “The historic relationship that the Petro government unilaterally severed will be strengthened once again,” Espriella’s office declared. The news unfortunately didn’t make a splash in mainstream international English-language media, despite the gravity the decision to withdraw from the case carries from a country that, under its previous administration, made its anti-Israel actions loud and clear.
2) Journalist Advocacy Group Quietly Withdraws Terrorists from List of Journalists Killed in Gaza
In an institutionally embarrassing development for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s largest journalist advocacy group, the organization removed eight terrorists from its log of journalists killed during the war in Gaza. Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo spotted the removal this week, which the IFJ did not publicly acknowledge. IFJ, which claims to be the “global voice of journalists” has run an ongoing list of so-called “journalists” killed in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attacks and claims to possess “evidence” that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been intentionally killing members of the media during its counterterrorism campaign.
The correction came after similar organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), faced backlash over its inclusion of several Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists in its database of slain media workers in Gaza. CPJ removed eight individuals after Hamas and PIJ memorial announcements made their inclusion impossible to justify.
CPJ also removed 12 other names from their database for separate reasons. “CPJ has always been clear that we do not include anyone in our data sets if there is evidence that they were engaging in combat or inciting imminent violence,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg stated on the matter. “This is consistent with international humanitarian law, which considers journalists affiliated with non-state actors to be civilians, provided they do not directly participate in hostilities.
But that take is highly controversial, even flawed. According to the Lieber Institute at West Point, “Military personnel engaged in journalistic activities, such as public affairs personnel, are combatants and never benefit from the law of armed conflict’s civilian protections. Similarly, members of organized armed groups like Hamas who perform propaganda or other media functions are not considered civilians for targeting law purposes (DoD Law of War Manual, sec 4.24.1.2).”
Separately, study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center revealed in late 2025 that some 60 percent of the over 250 fatalities in Gaza described as media workers between October 7, 2023, and November 30, 2025, were members of terror groups or affiliated with the groups.
The IFJ does not disclose its methodology for tracking slain Gazan journalists, only noting that it is “seeking multiple sources for each name added” to the list. As just one example, Hussam Al Adlouni was listed in late June on the IFJ website, before he was later outed as a field commander in Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. Hamas itself released the so-called “martyr” announcement.
While media outlets have continuously bashed Israel for allegedly “targeting” journalists throughout its campaign in Gaza, the lack of coverage of these removals is striking.
3) Hamas Gunmen Are Threatening Food Distribution Sites in Gaza
Surprising nobody, Hamas, which refuses to disarm as mandated by the U.S.-led Board of Peace as part of a plan for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, has begun to terrorize Palestinian civilians in enclave as the group consolidates power in the areas of the territory it still controls. Palestinian civilians told The Telegraph recently that the terrorist organization had sent operatives to a shelter for the elderly last week, firing their weapons in the air before demanding reparation for the rounds they fired. According to the report, Hamas has “perfected the art of hijacking aid shipments to smuggle goods” into Gaza.
The situation has gotten to the point where even United Nations (U.N.) officials have issued statements accusing the group of obstructing aid shipments in Gaza. U.N. Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ramiz Alakbarov said in recent weeks that Hamas’s actions are “[unacceptable], and reflect an increasingly dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence, and obstruction, including smuggling attempts, targeting, and abusing humanitarian operations.”
The U.N. was forced to suspend its humanitarian operations in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza after armed terrorists stormed the site, according to The Telegraph’s report. Terrorists recently assaulted two truck drivers working for the World Food Programme.
Hamas officially rejected the Board of Peace’s mandate for the group to disarm in April 2026 and has made no steps toward the process of laying down its weapons since then. In May, the Board’s High Representative to Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, said that the entire ceasefire’s future stipulations, including any IDF withdrawal from the embattled Gaza Strip, hinged on Hamas and other Palestinian terror factions complying with the U.S. demand to disarm and demilitarize. “The only way that we believe that we can ensure that Israeli withdrawal takes place to the perimeter is if we have the full elements of the plan unfolding in Gaza,” Mladenov said at the time.
But the situation hasn’t changed as the hot months in Israel continue to pass. International media outlets covering the situation should continue to hold Hamas accountable for ongoing hostilities in Gaza, a notion that is getting clearer day by day.