‘Journalist’ slammed for claiming hostage showed ‘appreciation and thanks’ to Hamas

A self-described journalist was branded a “f–ing lunatic” for insinuating that a hostage freed from Hamas over the weekend was expressing her “appreciation and thanks” to the terrorists as she was handed over to the Red Cross.

Maree Campbell, whose bio on X describes her as an “International Relations Analyst” and journalist, shared a screenshot of Mia Regev, 21, claiming that her facial expression seemed to express her thankfulness for how well she was treated.

“I’m not a facial expression expert, but judging by the look in her eyes and the expression on her face, I’d say this is a look of appreciation and thanks,” Campbell posted Sunday.

“Might it be that she is saying thanks for being treated unexpectedly well whilst in captivity.”

The post was widely condemned online, and a community note was added — saying that Regev was shot and her brother is believed to be either dead or still in captivity.

“Mia Regev was shot by Palestinian terrorists before they abducted her and her brother,” it said.

“They held her with a bullet wound for 50 days as a hostage and only released her pursuant to an agreement freeing convicted criminals from jail. She needed immediate medical care upon release.”

Pundit Jonah Goldberg, formerly of the National Review, also replied: “WTF is wrong with you?”

Others called her names, including former MSNBC security analyst Malcolm Nance, who said she is an “absolute idiot,” and author Bethany Mandel, who called Campbell a “f–ing lunatic.”

“You are an absolute idiot if you think a hostage who may have been abused for 47 days is saying with her eyes, ‘Thanks for the good treatment of abducting me, shooting me, tying me to a chair, beating and [possibly] sexually assaulting me! Oh, and thanks for killing my family and neighbors,’” Nance wrote.

“Any smile here means, ‘F– you terrorist bastards. I will watch you burn in Hell.”

Author Carol Roth also commented, “If you are taken hostage, you are not, by definition, being treated well.”

David Marcus, a columnist for Fox News, meanwhile, suggested, “Maybe she can leave a nice Yelp review.

“In fact, they could probably use a few more hostages, you should volunteer Maree. Experience that Hamas hospitality for yourself.”

But Campbell has only doubled down on her assertion, saying the community note added to her post should be “rated down … because ‘the context’ it is adding is from an unreliable source and is totally irrelevant to the content of my post.

“Together, let’s beat the Zionists who are trying to game the system and harass us into silence,” she wrote.

She also shared a video of Regev’s release superimposed with the words, “You set me free but you captured my heart” and suggested Elon Musk visit Gaza as he tours Israel.

“It’ll add content akin to community notes,” Campbell wrote.