According to Petra Marquardt-Bigman, Blumenthal testified at the Russell Tribunal that he arrived in Gaza "at the onset of a five-day humanitarian ceasefire on August 14". She said his interviews at the end of July indicated he was in Washington DC which suggested he was probably elsewhere, rather than "on the ground", for the first few weeks of the war. She said a tweet by Blumenthal on August 22, indicated he had by then left the area. Marquardt-Bigman wrote that "The 51 Day War" was marketed as an "explosive work of reportage" and that Blumenthal "went to Gaza only some two weeks before the end of the fighting". Marquardt Bigman wrote that certain of his tweets show an "uncritical acceptance of the terror group’s propaganda", a reference to Hamas. She said Blumenthal returned to Gaza to cover the "victory rallies" around the time Hamas accepted an indeterminate ceasefire.