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Media Painted Israel as Aggressor in Coverage of Hezbollah Commander Targeting
Thousands of Druze mourners in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights attended a funeral procession on July 28, 2024 in Majdal Shams for 11 of the 12 children and teenagers killed in a rocket attack the prior day. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
On Tuesday, July 30, an Israeli airstrike in Beirut eliminated Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, who was responsible for the rocket attack that had killed 12 Israeli children and teenagers in the Golan Heights last weekend.
Fuad Shukr was also the adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the United States says he played a central role in the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 US military personnel.
Despite this, some international media headlines omitted the fact he was targeted, and painted Israel’s strike as an all-out attack on the pastoral suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
Here’s a collection of some of the worst headlines we could find, followed by accurate ones:
Israel targeted senior Hezbollah operative Fouad Shukr, the man behind the deaths of 12 children in Majdal Shams and many other attacks. Yet, some media focused on Israel bombing a “Beirut suburb” instead of him and his crimes.
Here’s a breakdown: pic.twitter.com/c3FHHRQ7tu
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 30, 2024
Israeli “Attack” on Suburbia
The intelligence-based targeting of Shukr took place in the Dahiya suburb of Beirut, which is a Hezbollah stronghold.
Yet Reuters‘ headline made it look like Israel had deliberately attacked housewives on their way to a spa:
Please tell @Reuters that Israel’s strike was on the Hezbollah mass murderer who killed 12 children in Saturday’s soccer field slaughter and not on Teaneck, New Jersey. pic.twitter.com/oVgMtkPqdJ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 31, 2024
NBC News did the same, while at least mentioning it was a retaliatory strike:
For the Independent, it was a completely unsolicited air strike on Beirut:
And the AP, like the three examples above, omitted the essence of the story — the targeting of a top Hezbollah commander with blood on his hands:
Context and Target
So what would be a better headline?
One that mentions the following elements:
The target of the strike: a top Hezbollah commander.
The reason for the strike: in retaliation for a lethal terror attack.
The location of the strike: Beirut or its suburb– as a geographical locator, not as the essence of the story.
CNN did exactly that:
ABC News did not mention the soccer field massacre in their headline, but at least led with the IDF announcement on Shukr:
And Axios properly reported on the target of the strike:
The conclusion, however, isn’t positive.
As the bad examples above show, respectable media outlets twisted what should have been a straightforward story.
And the question is: why is it so hard to accurately report what happened, where it happened, and why it happened?
If the media won’t tell that story because accurate reporting paints Israel as fighting against evil, then the media is serving terrorists and murderers, and not telling the truth about evil.
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 Painted Israel as Aggressor in Coverage of Hezbollah Commander Targeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Readies for a Nationwide Strike on Sunday
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on for a general strike to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas for the release of their loved ones and a ceasefire. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
The October 7 Council and other groups representing bereaved families of hostages and soldiers who fell since the start of the war declared they were “shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages.”
While many businesses said they would join the strike, Israel’s largest labor federation, the Histadrut, has declined to participate.
Some of the country’s top educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, declared their support for the strike.
“We, the members of the university’s leadership, deans, and department heads, hereby announce that on Sunday, each and every one of us will participate in a personal strike as a profound expression of solidarity with the hostage families,” the Hebrew University’s deal wrote to students.
The day will begin at 6:29 AM, to commemorate the start of the October 7 attack, with the first installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Further demonstrations are planned at dozens of traffic intersections.
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Netanyahu ‘Has Become a Problem,’Says Danish PM as She Calls for Russia-Style Sanctions Against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen said Saturday, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen told Danish media, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far” and lashing out at the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and announced new homes in the West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said, specifying she referred to “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole.”
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect.”
The devastating war in Gaza began almost two years ago, with an incursion into Israel of thousands of Palestinian armed jihadists, who perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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As Alaska Summit Ends With No Apparent Progress, Zelensky to Meet Trump on Monday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – After US President Donald Trump hailed the “great progress” made during a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was set to meet Trump on Monday at the White House.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference after the meeting.
Many observers noted, however, that the subsequent press conference was a relatively muted affair compared to the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet welcome, and the summit produced no tangible progress.
Trump and Putin spoke briefly, with neither taking questions, and offered general statements about an “understanding” and “progress.”
Putin, who spoke first, agreed with Trump’s long-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Trump been president instead of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said “many points were agreed to” and that “just a very few” issues were left to resolve, offering no specifics and making no reference to the ceasefire he’s been seeking.