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Media Sinks To Disgraceful Low in Hezbollah Rocket Attack Coverage
Thousands of mourners gathered in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Golan Heights, on July 28, 2024 to pay their respects at the funerals of 11 of the 12 children who were killed a day earlier in a Hezbollah rocket attack. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
The international media’s coverage of Hezbollah’s deadly rocket attack on July 27 represents another low in reporting on Israel since the current Mideast war began.
Here’s a brief summary of the events: On Saturday afternoon, Hezbollah announced it had launched 100 rockets at an Israeli army base in the Golan Heights, near the Druze town of Majdal Shams.
Tragically, one of the rockets hit a soccer field where children were playing, killing 12 and injuring another 19.
As the victims’ identities emerged and it was confirmed that they were not Jewish Israelis, Hezbollah backtracked on its initial statement and denied responsibility for the attack.
So, why did the media obscure these clear facts in reports on the attack?
Sky News, for example, described it as an “attack on a football pitch in the Israeli-occupied Golan” that killed 11 people.
While the mention of the “occupied” Golan seemed to legitimize Hezbollah’s indiscriminate attacks, more tellingly, Sky News didn’t mention that all the victims were children and even implied in the subheading that the attack was retaliatory.
Compare the headline to Sky’s coverage published on the same day of an Israeli airstrike on a Hamas command and control center inside the Gaza Strip:
It’s telling that Sky chose not to explain why the IDF targeted the structure, yet made sure to highlight that one child was among the dead. This selective reporting speaks volumes.
Similarly, the BBC used the less emotive term “young people” to describe the victims in their headline, which also emphasized Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s attack.
Disgraceful media reporting on Hezbollah’s attack killing 12 Israeli children@SkyNews: “Attack on a football pitch.”@BBCNews: “Young people.”@washingtonpost: Lumped with Gaza news.
Why can’t the media accurately report the murder of innocent children? pic.twitter.com/6xdZP4vndG
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 28, 2024
Both The Washington Post and NPR connected Hezbollah’s strike to Israel’s war in Gaza. The Washington Post simply announced that “attacks in Gaza and Golan Heights” had occurred and NPR’s headline didn’t mention that children in Israel were killed at all, effectively downplaying the severity of the incident.
For its part, CNN shifted focus from the many victims of the attack –— the single deadliest strike on Israel since the October 7 Hamas massacre — to Hezbollah’s denial that it was responsible.
The reporting on Hezbollah’s strike revealed an appalling media double standard. Casualties in Israel are stripped of sympathy. For many journalists, Israel is an “occupier” and an “aggressor,” and even its civilian losses are framed as a sort of just consequence.
This simplistic narrative robs the innocent people lost in this war of their humanity, and provides justification for the worst terrorist atrocities.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Media Sinks To Disgraceful Low in Hezbollah Rocket Attack Coverage 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.