The Washington Post on Tuesday evening posted a correction and partial apology for misrepresenting a Sunday incident in Gaza, in which the media falsely claimed that Israel killed 30 Gazan civilians.
The statement, posted on X, noted that the Post “deleted the post below because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.”
WP explained, “Early versions of the article on Sunday stated that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site in Gaza, with the headline attributing the action to ‘health officials.'”
‘The article failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post. The article and headline were updated on Sunday evening making it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible for the shootings and that there was a dispute over that question.
“While statements from Israel that it was unaware of injuries and that an initial inquiry indicated its soldiers didn’t fire at civilians near the site were included in all versions, The Post didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings. The early versions fell short of Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form.”
In the Sunday incident, Palestinian Arab sources reported that an Israeli strike near a humanitarian aid distribution center in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah resulted in at least 30 deaths and numerous injuries. These allegations were echoed by international media outlets, leading to widespread criticism of Israel.
However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) promptly responded, stating, “The IDF is currently unaware of injuries caused by IDF fire within the Humanitarian Aid distribution site. The matter is still under review.”
Subsequently, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) released security camera footage from the aid distribution site during the time of the alleged incident. The video evidence revealed that no such attack occurred, effectively debunking the claims made by the Palestinian Arab sources.
Later that same day, the IDF released the findings of its initial investigation into the incident. These findings indicated that the IDF did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false.
The IDF clarified that it is cooperating with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and international aid organizations to enable the distribution of aid to the Gazan residents, and not to Hamas.
“Hamas does everything in its power to undermine food distribution efforts in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that starves and endangers the population in order to preserve its control over the Gaza Strip. As part of its brutal behavior and its attempts to disrupt humanitarian aid, Hamas directly harms the residents of Gaza,” the IDF stated.
The IDF called on the media to be cautious with information published by the Hamas terrorist organization, as proven in several previous incidents.
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2025-06-03 20:58:00
