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Media’s Casualty Is the Truth as it Spreads Three Damaging Lies About Gaza
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
“The first casualty of war is the truth.”
The late Republican senator Hiram Johnson (CA)’s immortal observation has come to mind more than a few times with regard to the media’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Actually, a more accurate rendering of the statement during this war would be, “most of the casualties of war are the truth.”
For the truth was not the first victim when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on that morning on October 7; raping and kidnapping festival-goers as the sun rose in the sky, and burning families alive in their homes within the formerly tranquil kibbutzim near the Gaza border.
In fact, the gruesome truth was there for everyone to bear horrified witness to as Hamas terrorists proudly documented their wicked actions using cell phones and body-worn cameras.
But truth has since taken a back seat in the reporting of Israel’s response to the attack and Hamas’ genocidal aims, with several glaring lies still being peddled by the media, twisting the public’s understanding of the war.
The media appears determined to paint Israel as a pariah state, eagerly spreading the most damaging misinformation and stubbornly refusing to correct themselves even when confronted with undeniable evidence to the contrary.
The ‘Genocide’ Ruling That Wasn’t
Perhaps the most damaging of all the mistruths still being promoted by the press is the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s interim ruling in January on a case brought by South Africa that accused Israel of genocide.
As we pointed out at the time, organizations such as the United Nations and Human Rights Watch led the way in misinterpreting the ruling, falsely claiming that the court had decided that the allegation of genocide in Gaza by Israel was “plausible.”
Next to jump on the misinformation bandwagon was the international media, uncritically parroting the claims of politically-motivated human rights organizations instead of consulting legal experts to report the ruling accurately.
Months later, Joan Donoghue, head of the ICJ at the time, set the record straight.
Appearing on the BBC current affairs show HARDTalk in April, Donoghue expressed relief at the opportunity to explain the ruling’s effect — and, in doing so, exposed months of media negligence, including by the editorial team of the very program on which she was being interviewed.
“The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court,” she clarified. “It then looked at the facts as well. But it did not decide — and this is something where I’m correcting what’s often said in the media — it didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.”
Despite Donoghue’s clear and public clarification, the “plausible genocide” lie continues to be promoted by numerous media outlets — demonstrating ignorance at best and naked bias by journalists at worst.
Just this week, The Guardian failed to remove the error from an opinion piece by a UK Member of Parliament, Zarah Sultana, which called on the UK’s newly-elected government to suspend arms sales to Israel.
No, MP Sultana and @guardian, the ICJ did NOT find Israel in breach of the genocide convention, as you can see the former ICJ president admit here: https://t.co/p36CTENXTO pic.twitter.com/I29DWHdXS0
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 17, 2024
The Famine That Never Happened
We recently addressed what can only be described as a campaign of disinformation surrounding the issue of food aid being delivered to the Gaza Strip.
But let’s go back to the beginning of this lie. Merely two weeks into the war, claims of starvation in the enclave were already being sounded. Oxfam, for example, alleged that “clean water has now virtually run out,” while stating that a “staggering 2.2 million people are now in urgent need of food.”
Since then, there have been almost daily headlines describing “catastrophic levels of hunger” in Gaza, with a population facing “imminent famine.”
Arab media outlets helped furnish this shaky narrative with questionable accounts of individual Palestinian children with preexisting and often life-threatening medical conditions supposedly dying from “malnutrition,” which are then reprinted wholesale by the Western media without editors or journalists ever bothering to probe a little deeper.
HonestReporting has repeatedly called out the media for continuing to allege a famine despite a paucity of evidence, and as further data is published that proves the opposite.
Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) walked back on a widely-publicized March briefing after uncovering several flaws in the original data, leading them to amend their initial claims. Ultimately, the IPC concluded that they cannot consider the situation in Gaza a “famine.”
The Beginning of a New Lie
HonestReporting launched a new fight this month to stop a fresh, equally damaging lie from taking root and eventually being reported as fact.
The discredited letter in The Lancet medical journal, which sensationally and without a shred of evidence, claims the Gaza death toll could be higher than 180,000, has been making the rounds.
This is how false info spreads:
1. @TheLancet publishes claims of 186,000 deaths in Gaza.
2. Media republish the false figure, ignoring the author’s prior justification of terrorism.
3. Israel is blamed for countless deaths that didn’t happen.https://t.co/rZmDKxjFP3 pic.twitter.com/Czc9daYP7m
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 8, 2024
Some media outlets jumped on the figure, producing sensationalist, click-bait headlines about the mass killing of Palestinians. However, the quick effort to counter The Lancet’s disinformation has had an impact.
The figure is not being quoted anymore in news articles in reputable mainstream media outlets, and HonestReporting is actively calling out the publications that do.
That’s how we’ll win the fight against media misinformation: by responding quickly and loudly across all platforms and publicly shaming news organizations that get it wrong.
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’s Casualty Is the Truth as it Spreads Three Damaging Lies About Gaza 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.