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Behind the Headlines: The Data That Exposes Media’s Anti-Israel Bias
The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
For anyone who has been following the mainstream media’s coverage of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas since October 7, 2023, it is clear that most news outlets have an anti-Israel bias running through their content.
This bias is evident in the stories that the outlets choose to publish, the context (or lack thereof) provided to their audience, and the sources that these media organizations rely on for their stories.
This bias has become so apparent that several academic sources have published studies of this one-sided news coverage, quantifying the extent to which an anti-Israel lens colors the average media consumer’s understanding of what is currently happening in Gaza.
In this piece, we will take a look at two recent studies that have analyzed the issue of anti-Israel bias in the media: One study surveyed several of the top English-language media outlets in the world, and the other focused specifically on the case of The New York Times, one of the most influential newspapers in the world.
Relying on Hamas, Questioning Israel: How the Media Report on Gazan Casualties
A study by Fifty Global Research Group took a look at all articles that mentioned Gazan casualties that were published between February and May 2024 by eight of the top global English-language news sources: CNN, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, the Associated Press, The Guardian, and ABC Australia.
Here are some of the major findings of this analysis of the media’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war:
- The vast majority of news stories did not make clear that the casualty figures provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health include members of Hamas and other terrorist groups. Only 15% of articles mentioned the fact that the Ministry does not differentiate between civilians and Hamas, while a mere 3% provided the estimated figure of terrorist casualties.
- There is a huge difference in how various news outlets reported the above-mentioned facts. While The Washington Post and the Associated Press mentioned in roughly 40% of their articles that Hamas does not separate the numbers of civilians and combatants, the BBC, Reuters, and CNN only mentioned this fact in less than 5% of their articles.
- 100% of all articles featured Hamas-provided figures on casualties, while only 4% of these articles provided Israel-provided casualty figures.
- Roughly 80% of the articles that featured Hamas’ casualty figures informed their readers that the numbers were from Hamas and/or the Gaza Ministry of Health, while 19% of these articles did not mention the source of these figures, giving the impression that they are undisputed common knowledge.
- In 50% of articles that provided Israeli casualty figures, they were treated with skepticism and presented as “unverifiable.” The same doubt about Hamas-provided figures only exists in less than 2% of these articles.
As various analysts have noted, this blind reliance on Hamas statistics helps contribute to the validation of an internationally recognized terror group as a reliable source and has helped promote a false narrative in which Israel is recklessly or intentionally killing innocent civilians in Gaza, not terrorists.
The New York Times: A Special Case of Anti-Israel Bias
While the above study focused on several leading media organizations, an analysis by Professor Eytan Gilboa (Bar Ilan University) and Lilac Sigan focused on bias in The New York Times’ coverage for the first seven months of the war.
Of the 3,848 articles published on the Israel-Hamas war, Gilboa and Sigan looked at the 1,398 pieces that were included in the Times’ daily subscriber newsletter email as a sample size.
Here are some of the major findings of their study of anti-Israel bias at one of the most influential and esteemed newspapers in the world:
- 46% of articles solely expressed empathy for the Palestinians. At the same time, only 10% of articles expressed empathy for Israelis.
- Throughout the seven-month period, the coverage was 4.4 times more sympathetic towards the Palestinians than it was towards the Israelis. Even during October 2023, mere weeks after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, the sympathy expressed towards Palestinians was double that expressed towards Israelis.
- Out of 50 articles about the hostages, only 28 (56%) blamed Hamas for their suffering, while 11 (22%) were critical of Israel itself.
- At the same time, out of 647 articles that were empathetic towards the Palestinians, only 2 blamed Hamas for their suffering.
- There were roughly 3 times as many op-eds that were critical of Israel (72) as there were those that were critical of Hamas (23).
It is clear that for The New York Times, Israel is seen as the primary aggressor in the conflict, with Hamas relegated to an almost secondary role in the conflict and its continuation. The same could be said for how The New York Times views the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians, focusing heavily on the Palestinian experience while largely ignoring the Israeli one.
These observations have also been made by Edieal Pinker (Yale School of Management) in his analysis of The New York Times’ coverage.
Pinker concluded that:
I found numerous imbalances in the NY Times coverage. Namely, reporting on both Israeli military and civilian casualties incurred, post October 7, is sparse. Reporting on Israeli suffering through personal accounts of non-October 7 victims is very limited while reporting of Palestinian personal accounts of suffering is very frequent. Reporting of Hamas militant casualties is sparse and reporting of Palestinian acts of violence post October 7 is very sparse. Mentions of Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran are much less frequent than mentions of Israel.
The potential net effect of these imbalances is multi-faceted. The imbalances create great sympathy for the Palestinian people while at the same time diminishing Hamas’ responsibility for their situation and the continuation of the war. Outside of the direct Israeli victims of October 7, there is little relative sympathy for Israelis, little recognition of the costs of the war to Israel, and great responsibility is placed upon Israel for the suffering of the Palestinians and the situation in the region. There is a certain irony in this pattern of coverage. The lion’s share of responsibility for the situation and its resolution is placed on Israel. Yet, at the same time the reporting does not give the reader a full understanding of how the war is being experienced by Israelis.
With such blatant anti-Israel bias in the war coverage of some of the world’s most influential and prestigious news organizations, is it any wonder that there is a rise in anti-Israel sentiment around the globe?
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.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.