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There Are Three Times More Attacks By Palestinians Than Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem
Illustrative: Israeli forces work at the scene of a suspected terrorist attack at a checkpoint outside of Jerusalem, in the West Bank, March 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
When are material omissions in media coverage evidence of something more than just sloppy journalism? Persistence is one factor to consider. So too is whether the omissions consistently skew toward one side of a conflict or debate. Both of these factors characterize CNN’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Consider one of the network’s recent reports.
In their November 5 article, “Israeli attacks in West Bank killed at least eight people, officials and residents say,” Kareem Khadder and Sana Noor Haq manage to omit an impressive number of crucial details in a transparent effort to depict Israelis in the most cynical light possible.
The story is focused on Israeli operations in several areas of the West Bank on November 4-5, during which CNN says eight Palestinians were killed. The first major omission: the reason why the IDF was operating in the first place. The IDF arrested some 60 members of the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), seized weapons, and destroyed an explosives laboratory being used by terrorists.
But the worst omissions are when Khadder and Noor Haq get down into the details of the raids, or rather, into just some of the details.
They write that “[t]wo Palestinians were killed in the town of Tamoun.” But readers are left unaware that both Palestinians were members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The terrorist organization itself had announced that its “armed wing” members had clashed with Israeli forces in Tamoun on that day.
CNN continues: “In the village of Al-Shuhada, near the city of Jenin, an Israeli airstrike killed two people.” But according to the IDF, those “two people” were “armed terrorists” who had been shooting and throwing explosives at Israeli forces. The IDF’s statement was nowhere to be found in CNN’s story.
כוחות צה״ל, שב״כ ומג״ב ממשיכים במבצע במרחב חטיבת מנשה. הכוחות פועלים מאתמול בקבאטיה ובנור א-שמס>> pic.twitter.com/0WSlDMFE38
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 6, 2024
Khadder and Noor Haq also write: “in the city of Qabatya …. two others [were] killed when an Israeli military vehicle rammed a car and opened fire, according to residents and video seen by CNN.”
But both occupants were terrorists, including Majdi Hamza Ahmed Shkira, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad who was already wanted for acts of terrorism. Palestinian Islamic Jihad itself boasted about its terrorists “clashing” with Israeli forces in Qabatya, too.
Moreover, the evidence suggests the terrorists rammed into the Israeli military vehicle, not the other way around. The IDF’s version of events, which the journalists also omitted in violation of basic journalistic ethics, was that “soldiers identified a suspicious vehicle that sped towards them and crashed into them,” wounding two of them.
CNN notably doesn’t show the video it relied on to reach its conclusions, but footage and images available online support the IDF’s story.
The footage shows two IDF vehicles in a defensive position, blocking the road. This is standard practice: one can find dozens of images of Israeli forces operating in the West Bank positioning their vehicles in similar fashion. Just a few feet away from the IDF vehicles sits a sedan with severe damage to its front hood, indicating it hit something head on.
It’s difficult to make definitive conclusions based on these images, but these facts do provide some important clarity and a basis to determine the reliability of any conclusions. So why wouldn’t these pieces of information be included when they help shed light toward the truth? Is it because they cast doubt on CNN’s definitive conclusion of Israeli wrongdoing?
Khadder and Noor Haq’s pattern of omissions didn’t end there, though.
Continuing CNN’s tradition of giving its audience half-truths on violence in the West Bank, Khadder and Noor Haq claimed that “at least 775 Palestinians, including 167 children” have been killed by “Israeli troops and settlers” since October 7. They also claimed that “nearly 1,600 settler attacks against Palestinians have been recorded” during the same period.
But CNN leaves out the other side of the story: Palestinian violence. From October 2023 through September 2024 — excluding the month of January 2024, for which data was not immediately available — there have been 4,916 attacks by Palestinians against Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including 1,140 firebombs, 695 pipe bombs, 253 shooting attacks, and 277 arson attacks, as well as ramming attacks, stabbing attacks, car bombings, and even a suicide attack. That’s at least three times as many attacks against Israelis as there were against Palestinians.
These attacks have been deadly, too, killing 40 Israelis and wounding nearly 300 more.
The emphasis on Palestinian child casualties is also misleading. While every death of a child is tragic, it is an established fact that Palestinian children are regularly involved in terrorism. The data shows that this trend continues to be highly relevant to the story. Databases on Palestinian fatalities show that between October 7, 2023 and March 31, 2024, 17-year-olds accounted for 36% of all deaths of minors. More than three-quarters (76%) of all minors killed during the period were aged 15 or older. The circumstances of many of those deaths, even according to anti-Israel activist organizations like B’Tselem, indicate they were involved in violence.
Together, Khadder and Noor Haq’s omissions demonstrate an unmistakable bias. They work to erase the violence of Palestinians while depicting Israelis as needlessly violent and oppressive. For media consumers seeking straightforward and honest reporting, CNN is clearly not the answer.
David M. Litman is a Research Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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