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The Associated Press Treats Hamas’ Highly Questionable Casualty Figures as Fact
Troops from the IDF’s 98th Division operating in Jabalia, the northern Gaza Strip, May 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces.
One day after the publication of yet another detailed study identifying serious flaws and anomalies in Hamas-supplied figures for fatalities incurred in Israel’s Gaza Strip offensive, the Associated Press (AP) ran a headline and article that cited the terror organization’s disputed and highly questionable figures as fact without even providing attribution.
The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists urges: “Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.”
But the AP did the exact opposite, publishing a headline that concealed the source of an unreliable casualty figure supplied by a designated terror organization and falsely presented the contested number as confirmed fact: “Israel will close its Ireland embassy as Palestinian death toll nears 45,000.”
In the seventh paragraph of their Dec. 15, 2024, article, reporters Wafaa Shurafa and Natalie Melzer likewise cast unverified Hamas data as actual truth: “Israeli forces continued Sunday to pound Gaza, including the largely isolated north, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000.”
Only some one dozen paragraphs later does the article provide attribution:
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed almost 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but it says over half of the dead have been women and children.
But most readers won’t get that far. They’ve already been fed the figure in the headline as if it’s a verified fact, as opposed to an unsubstantiated number supplied by a terror organization.
Not only is Hamas’ casualty data unverified; it’s also highly disputed and rife with anomalies.
The latest in a string of studies to identify multiple flaws and discrepancies in Hamas’ data is Andrew Fox’s Henry Jackson Society in-depth study, published on Dec. 14. These anomalies include listing people who died from natural causes as war victims, counting those killed by errant Palestinian rockets or Hamas gunmen as victims of Israeli airstrikes, inflating the number of children killed by misreporting ages, miscategorizing men as women with the same result, and so on (“Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll From the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza“).
Furthermore, while Shurafa and Melzer treated Hamas’ figure as credible, and even factual, they completely ignored Israeli-supplied information on fatalities in the Gaza Strip.
Notably, the AP does at times cite, including in a separate Dec. 16 article, the Israeli military’s information that fatalities include more than 17,000 Hamas combatants.
But this information is always cited with a caveat qualifying Israeli credibility: “The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.” (Emphasis added.)
It’s striking that the AP does not likewise call Hamas’ credibility into question, despite the numerous well documented and serious anomalies in Hamas’ figures and the fact that thousands among the reported 45,000 are unidentified, even according to Hamas’ acknowledgment.
“More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day,” the leading wire service maintains. While boasting it has “done more than any organization in the world to expand the reach of factual reporting,” the AP excels at expanding the reach of Hamas propaganda dressed up as factual reporting.
Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.
The post The Associated Press Treats Hamas’ Highly Questionable Casualty Figures as Fact 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.