Motaz Azaiza was elevated into a global celebrity: TIME100. Ms. Rachel. Zohran Mamdani. Hasan Piker. And this is who they chose to platform. By his own account, Motaz was out with his camera at 6:30 a.m. on October 7. He followed an Al-Qassam vehicle carrying Israeli captives, filmed Palestinians beating them, and withheld the footage because he feared Israel could identify the attackers. Later, he described released Israeli hostages as “fat, smiling and in good health.” He has used ambulances for transportation, backed a campaign to free convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti, and described a Hamas-run WhatsApp group coordinating Gaza’s media ecosystem. The receipts are in his posts, his interviews, and his own words.