WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The Huffington Post reported that the U.S. Department of State has sent messages to diplomats advising them to avoid using terms that call for a calming of the situation amid the ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
The messages tell diplomats to avoid using the terms “de-escalation/ceasefire”, “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm” in press materials, according to the website, which said it had viewed the dispatches.
The report comes amid criticism that President Joe Biden’s administration has not done enough to urge the Zionist regime’s restraint amid high civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Health accused Zionist troops of the “targeting and killing of medical and ambulance personnel during their humanitarian missions to evacuate the victims of aggression”.
At least 15 health facilities were damaged and 23 ambulances were destroyed in airstrikes Friday, according to the Palestinian ministry.
A dramatic video posted on the ministry in Gaza’s Facebook page captured the moment an ambulance was rocked by an explosion as it attempted to flee a chaotic scene.
In another development, American cable channel MSNBC has quietly taken three prominent Muslim journalists “out of the anchor’s chair” since the onset of war between Palestinians and the Zionist regime, a report says.
In a report on Saturday, Semafor news website said MSNBC quietly took Mehdi Hasan, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi “out of the anchor’s chair” after the war broke out on October 7.
According to the report, MSNBC did not broadcast its scheduled Thursday night episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show on the streaming platform Peacock.
As a British-American broadcaster and best-selling author of Indian descent, Hasan has presented The Mehdi Hasan Show on Peacock since October 2020 and on MSNBC since February 2021.
The network also reversed a plan for Mohyeldin to fill in for another host on Thursday and Friday.
The Egyptian-American journalist, the network’s most experienced reporter in Gaza, is a fierce critic of policies adopted by the Zionist regime toward Palestinians. As a veteran NBC News correspondent, he covered the conflict from the besieged Gaza Strip for two years.
Citing an unnamed sources with knowledge of the plans, Semafor said MSNBC also plans to replace Velshi with Alicia Menendez in this upcoming weekend.
As a Canadian journalist of Indian descent, Velshi is a Muslim and a senior economic and business correspondent for NBC News since October 2016. He serves as an anchor for MSNBC.
Velshi on Sunday had interviewed a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, which governs the occupied West Bank.
According to the report, some staff at MSNBC have been concerned by the shifts, feeling all the three hosts have some of the “deepest knowledge” of the conflict in the occupied territories.
NBC claimed that the changes are “coincidental” and denied that that the hosts – three of the most high-profile Muslim on-air personalities on the network - are being sidelined, saying that the three Muslim journalists continue to appear on air to report and provide analysis.
The apparent dismissals came after the editorial board of the New York Post published a scathing attack on MSNBC for its “shameful” coverage of the Palestinian operation, accusing the news organization of having “run interference for Hamas.”