A new report by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) reveals what has been obvious all along: The death toll provided by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza does not add up.

Despite the Palestinian casualty figures being disputed by Israel, this hasn’t stopped most mainstream media outlets from treating them with barely deserved credibility.

The HJS report analyzed a collection of 1,378 articles published by leading English-language newspapers and media outlets, specifically The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN, BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, and the Australian ABC.

The findings are staggering:

• 84% of the publications analyzed failed to make the critical distinction in total numbers between combatant deaths and civilian deaths.   

• In 19% of the publications analyzed, the numbers of fatalities provided by Hamas-run institutions were used without citing any source, thereby suggesting those figures were undisputed.  

• A mere 5% of outlets cited the casualty statistics provided by Israel; 98% cited figures by the Hamas-run MoH. The Israeli figures were questioned in half of the articles that cited them, whereas the Hamas figures were often taken at face value. 

• Men were recorded in fatality lists as female when the same individual was reported as a male in the Palestinian Population Registry. Similarly, the ages of several fatalities have been found to be inaccurate — men in their twenties or thirties are reported as children and babies, skewing the reported number of women and children killed. 

• There is a disproportionate number of young men of fighting age listed among the casualties. There is no differentiation between civilians and Hamas combatants. 

• The figures reported by the Hamas-run MoH include those who died of natural causes.

These results underscore a clear pattern of Hamas systematically influencing the media’s perception of the war.

Chapter 6 is the work of the amazing Tania Glezer from https://t.co/hAEdhFrjhb and the International Institute for Social and Legal Studies.

They show the shocking imbalance in global media reporting on this conflict.

The West’s media has taken the conscious decision to… pic.twitter.com/2IHHrlpdJp

— Andrew Fox (@Mr_Andrew_Fox) December 15, 2024

This is not the first time the death toll in Gaza has been inflated by Hamas. Hamas has striven to influence the media’s perception of its wars with Israel since at least 2009, aligning with the terror organization’s broader objective of influencing international opinion to garner sympathy and condemnation of Israeli actions.  

In past wars between Israel and Hamas, Hamas has issued guidelines that call on Palestinians to consider all casualties to be “innocent civilians.”  

However, these “innocent civilians” are frequently found to have connections with Hamas or other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐯𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲:#Palestinian media claim that Israel mercilessly killed 36 Palestinians. But these channels have whitewashed terrorists, removed context, & attempted to portray them as innocent civilians. pic.twitter.com/c7lU3QBX6o

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 6, 2023

How many news outlets will acknowledge the HJS report, or even cover it in their own stories?

Sadly we know the answer, because doing so would require them to admit to using inaccurate death tolls provided by Hamas. When Hamas has quietly revised the number of casualties, the media have turned the other way. What better way to villainize Israel while avoiding accountability for propagating false information provided by a terrorist organization?

This has had serious implications in media reporting of casualty numbers in recent months ,as outlets have claimed 70% of casualties in the war are women and children.

Not only were these reports using statistics with misleading sample sizes, but the added findings provided by the HJS report indicate that the misclassification of men as women, as well as other inaccuracies in casualty data from Hamas-run institutions, have further distorted these figures.  

Chapter 2 deals with the age breakdown of demographics in much more detail and highlights numerous obvious errors.

This chapter allows you to comprehensively rebut the idea that Israel is targeting women and children.

3/9 pic.twitter.com/ySlUNZ0d9N

— Andrew Fox (@Mr_Andrew_Fox) December 15, 2024

Andrew Fox, the author of the report asserted “This misclassification contributes to the narrative that civilian populations, particularly women and children, bear the brunt of the conflict, potentially influencing sentiment and media coverage.”  

It is undeniable that the casualty figures provided by Hamas are inaccurate and should not be relied on by any media outlet. Nonetheless, when asked for a response to the report by The Telegraph, the BBC claimed, “It is challenging to report accurately on the death toll in Gaza as Israel does not allow independent access to international journalists.”

Yet, the BBC does have correspondents in Gaza. Is the BBC acknowledging that it cannot trust its correspondents in Gaza to report on the war accurately or impartially? Perhaps BBC media workers in Gaza could investigate the casualty figures but that would necessitate the BBC having to publicly state that there is no press freedom in Gaza due to Hamas influence and control.

Claiming that Israel does not allow independent access to international journalists is no excuse for parroting Hamas casualty figures.

Is @BBCNews admitting that its correspondents in Gaza are not impartial or capable of investigating for themselves? pic.twitter.com/Qocbj01tA5

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 14, 2024

Hamas has enticed the media to push out a lie so extravagantly crafted that admitting the truth now after more than a year of war would cause embarrassment to the outlets that took a terrorist organization’s claims at face value.  

If Hamas’ own casualty figures don’t add up, neither do the media narratives that echo them.  

Born in Toronto, Sharon Levy moved to Israel in October 2023 and has held various roles in Israel advocacy and research institutions. Sharon has a Masters degree in Government with a specialization in Counterterrorism and Cyber Security from Reichman University. 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 New Report Proves Gaza Casualty Numbers Are a Lie — the Media Still Reports Them first appeared on Algemeiner.com.