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CNN Uses Gaza ‘Famine’ Myth to Slander Israel
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Is there an imminent famine in Gaza?
How CNN has covered this story over the last four months is illuminating, but not in the sense of discovering the facts. Rather, CNN’s coverage illustrates just how the network is leaving its audience both uninformed and misinformed.
Consider the case of a series of four reports produced by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) network, a collection of various governmental and non-governmental organizations, on the state of food security in the Gaza Strip. Then consider how CNN covered each report.
The first report came in March, in which the IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) claimed “[f]amine is now projected and imminent in the North Gaza and Gaza Governates and is expected to become manifest during the projection period from mid-March 2024 to May 2024.”
The second report, dated May 31, came from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), a USAID creation and IPC partner, which purported to conduct an “IPC-compatible analysis.” This report claimed that “it is possible, if not likely, that all three IPC thresholds for Famine (food consumption, acute malnutrition, and mortality) were met or surpassed in northern Gaza in April.”
The third report, published June 4, contradicted this.
Authored by the Famine Review Committee, this report was a review of the FEWS NET claim that famine was already happening. According to the FRC, the FEWS NET analysis was deeply flawed, using questionable methodology and incomplete data. In short, the analysis did not include an enormous amount of food flowing into Gaza Strip via commercial deliveries and even via the World Food Programme. As the FRC wrote:
While FEWS NET estimated the caloric availability in the area as covering only 59-63% of the needs (based uniquely on Humanitarian Food Assistance) in April, the review done by the FRC estimates that this range would be 75% to 109% if commercial and/or privately contracted food deliveries were included (157% if a higher estimate was used).
As brilliantly summed up by Seth Mandel at Commentary: “The methodology behind measuring Palestinian suffering, then, is: If you only count some of the food Gazans are eating, Gazans are not eating enough food.”
The final relevant report, dated June 25, is another FRC report of a similar nature to the one from March. It begins with the sentence: “Following the publication of the second FRC report on 18 March 2024, which projected that a Famine would occur in the most likely scenario, a number of important developments occurred.”
In short, the FRC backtracked. The “imminent” famine never happened, and they don’t claim one is “imminent” now.
So how did CNN cover each of these developments?
In March, with the first report, the network treated it as a bombshell development that a “famine” was “imminent” in Gaza, with headlines screaming: “Famine in northern Gaza is imminent as more than 1 million people face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger, new report warns” (Helen Regan, Niamh Kennedy, and Louis Mian, Mar. 19, 2024).
CNN also reported on the May 31 FEWS NET report, writing in its headline, “Famine ‘possible, if not likely’ to be underway in northern Gaza, expert group warns” (Duarte Mendonca and Alex Stambaugh, Jun. 5, 2024).
Notably, this article was published after the FRC published its review of the serious flaws in the FEWS NET report, and yet the article does not mention it.
Indeed, as far as I can find, at no point in any article did CNN ever mention the FRC review casting serious doubt on the credibility of the FEWS NET claim that famine was “likely to be underway.”
After skipping mention of the June 5 FRC review, the network deemed the FRC’s analysis worth mention again with the publication of the June 25 report, which a CNN article flatly lies about.
Rather than inform the audience that the FRC has backtracked and no longer believes famine is “imminent,” a total of eight CNN reporters make the false claim that the June 25 report said “almost all of Gaza will face famine within the next three months.” (“Children are dying of starvation in their parents’ arms as famine spreads through Gaza,” by Abdel Qadder Sabbah, Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Tareq El Helou, Kareem Khadder, Sana Noor Haq, Paula Hancocks, Jo Shelley, and Byron Blunt, Jun. 26 2024) [emphasis added].
The report, of course, said no such thing. It said there is a risk of famine, but not that famine will happen.
Those who get their news from CNN are thus left with both an incomplete and an erroneous understanding of what is happening.
On the one hand, they’re left uninformed that the analyses claiming famine was already likely happening have been discredited. On the other hand, they’re being blatantly lied to about what the IPC wrote in its June 25 report. Both work to leave the audience with the false impression that there is a famine in Gaza.
What these CNN journalists are choosing to tell the audience and what to keep to themselves on this subject is revealing, further evidencing the anti-Israel bias that is degrading the network’s credibility.
David M. Litman is a Research Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).
The post CNN Uses Gaza ‘Famine’ Myth to Slander Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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French Officials Replant Olive Trees to Honor Murdered Jew Ilan Halimi After Vandalized Memorial
A crowd gathers at the Jardin Ilan Halimi in Paris on Feb. 14, 2021, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Halimi’s kidnapping and murder. Photo: Reuters/Xose Bouzas/Hans Lucas
More than a month and a half after the olive tree planted to honor Ilan Halimi was vandalized and cut down, French authorities are continuing efforts to replant olive trees in memory of the young Jewish man who was brutally tortured to death in 2006.
On Tuesday, local officials unveiled a commemorative plaque in the garden of Paris City Hall and planted a new tree to honor Halimi’s memory.
“This tree is a symbol of life,” said Ariel Weil, mayor of Paris Centre. “Next year will mark the tragic 20th anniversary of Ilan Halimi’s murder.”
“At the time, he was barely a young man. At 23, full of passion and the energy of youth, he pursued the promise of love — but met a tragic death instead,” Weil continued. “With this tree, however, it is Ilan Halimi’s life that is being planted in our garden.”
Last week, the southern French town of Pollestres also planted a new olive tree in honor of Halimi, calling it “a symbol of peace and remembrance” and a stand against hatred and antisemitism.
“We aim to promote values against barbarism, racism, and antisemitism, and I must say that right now, there is a climate of hatred between communities,” said Jean-Charles Moriconi, the town’s mayor.
“I believe that to unite everyone, we need gestures like this — proof that when something is torn down or destroyed, it will be replanted,” he continued.
Last month, French authorities planted the first olive tree in Saint-Ouen, a northern suburb of Paris in the Île-de-France region, two weeks after Halimi’s previous memorial was vandalized.
Hervé Chevreau, mayor of the northern Paris suburb Épinay, announced that several olive trees will be replanted in Halimi’s memory, praising “a remarkable outpouring of solidarity” reflected in the donations.
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) — the main representative body of French Jews — praised these gestures as a powerful symbol of “the deep roots of the Jewish people in the [French Republic], and in the history of France,” saying that “no one will be able to uproot them.”
Halimi was abducted, held captive, and tortured in January 2006 by a gang of about 20 people in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Three weeks later, he was found in Essonne, south of Paris, naked, gagged, and handcuffed, with clear signs of torture and burns. The 23-year-old died on the way to the hospital.
In 2011, an olive tree was planted in Halimi’s memory. In August, the memorial was found felled — probably with a chainsaw — in Epinay-sur-Seine.
Halimi’s memory has faced attacks before, with two other trees planted in his honor vandalized in 2019 in Essonne.
Shortly after this latest attack, two 19-year-old Tunisian twin brothers, undocumented and with prior convictions for theft and violence, were arrested for allegedly vandalizing and cutting down Halimi’s memorial.
Both brothers appeared in criminal court and were remanded in custody pending their trial, scheduled for Oct. 22.
They will face trial on charges of “aggravated destruction of property” and “desecration of a monument dedicated to the memory of the dead on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion,” offenses that, according to prosecutors, carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.
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Israel Diverts Gaza Flotilla Ships, Says ‘Greta Thunberg Safe’
Sailing boats, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel’s naval blockade, sail off Koufonisi islet, Greece, Sept. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis
Several vessels of the international flotilla heading to Gaza have been stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port, the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate campaigner, and her friends are “safe and healthy,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X alongside a video that appeared to show Thunberg and several masked and armed Israeli military personnel.
The flotilla’s organizers said that Israeli military personnel intercepted and boarded the ships, which aim to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza — the Palestinian enclave that has been ruled by the terrorist group Hamas for nearly two decades — and deliver some aid there.
Some 20 vessels were seen approaching the flotilla earlier on Wednesday night, multiple people on board said, as passengers put on life vests and braced for a takeover.
“Multiple vessels … were illegally intercepted and boarded by Israeli Occupation Forces in international waters,” the organizers said in a statement. “We are diligently working to account for all participants and crew.”
It said that its communications were jammed before boarding began, which interfered with cameras that were providing live streams from various boats and communications between vessels.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which consists of more than 40 civilian boats carrying about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers, and activists including Thunberg, is trying to break Israel‘s blockade despite repeated warnings from Israel to turn back.
It is about 70 nautical miles off the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching.
A live video feed from one of the boats in the flotilla showed passengers in life vests sitting on deck.
It is not clear how many of the boats had been intercepted or stopped. Some passengers said their vessels continued to advance.
Organizers remained defiant, saying in the statement that the flotilla “will continue undeterred.”
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about intercepting the vessels.
Its foreign ministry earlier said the navy had warned the flotilla it was approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful blockade, and asked them to change course.
The ministry said that it reiterated the offer to transfer any aid peacefully through safe channels to Gaza.
TRYING TO BREAK THE BLOCKADE
The flotilla is the latest sea-borne attempt to break Israel‘s blockade of Gaza.
The flotilla had been hoping to arrive in Gaza on Thursday morning if it was not intercepted.
This was the second time the flotilla was approached on Wednesday. Before dawn, the mission’s organizers said two Israeli “warships” had approached fast and encircled two of the flotilla’s boats. All navigation and communication devices went down in what one organizer on board described as a “cyber attack.”
A video post on the flotilla’s Instagram page showed the silhouette of what appeared to be a military vessel with a gun turret near the civilian boats.
Reuters confirmed that the video was filmed from the flotilla, but could not confirm the identity of the other vessel in the video or when the video was taken.
Last week members of the flotilla claimed the mission was attacked by drones, which reportedly dropped stun grenades and itching powder on the vessels, causing damage but no injuries.
Israel did not comment on that attack, but has said it will use any means to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza, arguing that its naval blockade is legal as it battles Hamas terrorists in the coastal enclave.
Italy and Spain deployed naval ships to help with any rescue or humanitarian needs but stopped following the flotilla once it got within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of Gaza for safety reasons. Turkish drones have also followed the boats.
Italy and Greece on Wednesday jointly called on Israel not to hurt the activists aboard and called on the flotilla to hand over its aid to the Catholic Church for indirect delivery to Gaza – a plea the flotilla has previously rejected.
Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the mission as a stunt.
“This systematic refusal [to hand over the aid] demonstrates that the objective is not humanitarian, but provocative. They are not seeking to help, they are seeking an incident,” Jonathan Peled, the Israeli ambassador to Italy, said in a post on X.
PAST ATTEMPTS TO DELIVER AID
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control of the coastal enclave in 2007 and there have been several previous attempts by activists to deliver aid by sea.
In 2010, nine activists were killed after Israeli soldiers boarded a flotilla of six ships manned by 700 pro-Palestinian activists from 50 countries.
In June this year, Israeli naval forces detained Thunberg and 11 crew members from a small ship organized by a pro-Palestinian group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as they approached Gaza.
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FBI Cuts Ties With Anti-Defamation League, FBI Director Says
FBI Director Kash Patel attends the signing of an executive order by US President Donald Trump on a deal that would divest TikTok’s US operations from ByteDance from its Chinese owner ByteDance, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Sept. 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The FBI said on Wednesday it had cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish group that tracks antisemitism, after Republicans criticized the group for including slain activist Charlie Kirk’s organization in a glossary on extremism.
In a social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau “won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”
The ADL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear what sort of ties the FBI had with the ADL.
Patel’s announcement followed criticism of the ADL by right-wing activists and leaders, including billionaire Elon Musk, over its inclusion of Kirk’s Turning Point USA in a “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” on its website. Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in September.
After that criticism, the ADL removed the entire glossary from its website. The glossary had said that Turning Point USA had a history of “bigoted statements,” a charge the group rejects.