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New York Times Corrects Widely Mocked Headline That Exaggerated Gaza Death Toll
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, in this handout picture released on Jan. 2, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The New York Times has corrected a print headline that erroneously claimed more people had died in the current war in Gaza than in any Arab conflict in the past 40 years.
The headline was widely mocked online. “The NYT is now just making [stuff] up,” Aviva Klompas posted on X/Twitter, in a tweet that amassed more than 773,000 views. Her post included an image of the blatantly inaccurate headline, which read, “Gaza Deaths Surpass Any Arab War Losses in 40 Years.”
Actually, even if you accept the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry’s count, now at about 23,000 — a big if, because the ministry has every incentive to exaggerate — the Gaza toll pales beside other conflicts. In the Iraq War, estimates range from 100,000 to more than 1 million deaths. In the Syrian civil war, estimates of deaths range from 350,000 to “more than 500,000.”
A Times spokeswoman pointed out to the Algemeiner in response to a query that the Times had, on Dec. 28, published a print correction of the headline. That correction read: “A headline with an article on Dec. 22 about fatalities in Gaza reaching nearly 20,000 referred incorrectly to the historical significance of the Arab death toll of the Israel-Hamas war. The total is the heaviest loss on the Arab side in any war with Israel in 40 years, not in any war involving Arab countries in that time frame.”
“The error did not appear in the online version of the article,” the Times spokeswoman said.
The online pushback to the headline attracted a large audience. Eli David noted, “Over half a million were killed in Syria. 300,000 killed in Yemen.” He said the New York Times “has turned into a parody of itself.” That post attracted 1.3 million impressions on X/Twitter.
By contrast, a Jan. 9 post by New York Times corporate communications drawing attention to the correction attracted a mere 4,600 impressions.
With their social media posts, Klompas and David tapped into a widely shared view among Jewish and pro-Israel readers that the Times pays far more attention to deaths inflicted by Israel than to deaths inflicted by other armed forces. That approach by the Times plays into anti-Israel and in some cases antisemitic propaganda that portrays Israel as bloodthirsty or indifferent to the deaths of Palestinians.
The terrorist group Hamas is using civilians as human shields in part for that propaganda purpose. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers are dying daily in part because of Israel’s attempt to minimize civilian casualties by going building-by-building in parts of Gaza rather than leveling the entire area.
Neither the Times headline nor the correction distinguished between civilian and combatant deaths.
Give the Times some credit, I suppose, for issuing the correction after being publicly called out. But the frequency of such errors raises questions about the processes that create them. As I’ve written in previous Algemeiner articles about the many previous Times corrections on these topics, “the frequency and number of the corrections make Times readers wonder whether the Times team is capable of getting the news right the first time around.”
No wonder that when readers accuse the Times of “just making [stuff] up” or of becoming “a parody of itself,” rather than reacting that the erroneous headline was an honest mistake committed by imperfect humans who deserve the benefit of the doubt, a lot of people saw it as evidence of Times bias, a kind of deliberate smear of the Israel Defense Forces. With its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, the Times has been eroding whatever remaining trust it had among pro-Israel readers. Whatever reservoir of goodwill the paper once may have had among its audience for innocent mistakes is long gone.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
The post New York Times Corrects Widely Mocked Headline That Exaggerated Gaza Death Toll first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.