New York Times Peddles ‘Fabricated Stories’ About Gaza Aid

A series of recent New York Times articles have promoted the false impression that Israel is starving Gazans.

The Saturday, May 31 edition of the New York Times carried a haunting front-page photograph of a skeletal child with the cutline “Hunger Tightens Its Grip on Gaza” and the further text, “Aid began to trickle into the territory last week, almost all of it arriving at southern distribution centers. But there is never enough. Above, a girl, 6, in Gaza City, in the strip’s north.”

What the front-page photo cutline does not say but is discernible with further research in the Times online, is that the child in the picture, Najwa Hussein Hajjaj, “needs specially prepared meals because of an esophagus condition,” and that “the Jordanian authorities, who heard about her case, are trying to evacuate her to receive medical care abroad.”

What’s to blame, Israel or the esophagus condition? In any case, systems for evacuating the sickest Gazans are apparently operating and would be operating even better if more countries like Jordan were willing to accept more Gazans.

The Monday, June 2 edition of the New York Times advanced the narrative with a top-of-the-front-page headline: “Over 20 Killed at Gaza Aid Site.” The Times article began, “More than 20 people were killed on Sunday and more than 100 wounded when Palestinians who had gathered overnight in the hope of obtaining food from an aid distribution center in Gaza came under fire, according to local health officials.”

The Wednesday, June 4 edition of the Times carried another front-page article, headlined, “Israel Again Opens Fire on Gazans Near Aid Hub.” The article began by reporting, “The Red Cross and Gaza health ministry said at least 27 people had been killed.”

The Washington Post ran a correction of its own article on this subject, saying it “fell short of Post standards of fairness,” and that “the Post didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings.” Yet there has been no correction from the New York Times, which was just as irresponsible.

Here’s what the New York Times is not sharing with its readers on the front page. The American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, in a “Statement on Media Misinformation on Gaza,” said, “Reckless and irresponsible reporting by major US news outlets are contributing to the antisemitic climate that has resulted in the murder of two young people at an Israeli Embassy event in Washington last month and the attempted murder and terror attack on a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado on Sunday.”

Ambassador Huckabee went on: “Without verification of any source other than Hamas and its collaborators, the New York Times, CNN, and Associated Press reported that a number of people seeking to receive humanitarian food boxes from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund were shot or killed by the Israeli Defense Forces. These reports were FALSE. Drone video and first-hand accounts clearly showed that there were no injuries, no fatalities, no shooting, no chaos. It is Hamas that continues to terrorize and intimidate those who seek food aid. The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States.”

Said Huckabee, “For the New York Times, AP, and CNN to be part of a Hamas-fed false narrative is reprehensible. It represents more than mere sloppy journalism. It’s feeding and inciting violence against innocent people in the United States.”

The Times appointed a former United Nations employee, Lauren Jackson, to criticize the non-Hamas aid program in Gaza. “For most of the war, experienced groups like the United Nations have distributed aid,” the former UN employee wrote for the Times. Israel claimed that Hamas had diverted the aid, but “that couldn’t be verified by the Times, and the UN said it was exaggerated,” wrote Jackson, the former UN employee reporting on the UN for the Times. Her article included the photo of Najwa Hussein Hajjaj, while identifying her incorrectly as “Hussein Hajjaj” and again failing to include either the context about her esophagus condition or the context about her possible evacuation to Jordan.

The Israeli government arm Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, also released a recording of a Gazan explaining that on Sunday maybe seven or eight people were killed, and that the Hamas terrorists were the ones who fired on the people. “The people who fired were Hamas terrorists. They don’t want the people to receive aid, they want to foil the plan so that the aid will go to them, allowing them to steal it … They’re criminals, like ISIS, they have no compassion for their own people.” An Israeli government spokesman also released video: “Watch with your own eyes: Hamas shoots at civilians in Gaza to prevent them from reaching aid distribution points.”

Anyway, there are at least two two sides to this story. The Hamas terrorists say Israel is starving the Gazans and murdering the Gazans seeking food aid. The Israeli and American government says the Hamas terrorists are shooting the Gazans seeking food aid. The Times is just giving its readers the Hamas side of the story, falsely depicting Israel as starving innocent and otherwise healthy Gazan children.

Ambassador Huckabee said, “Media sources who willingly parrot these libelous allegations should recant their fake news stories, apologize, and pledge to practice actual reporting of fact instead of engaging in dangerous propaganda that assists the terror group Hamas as they continue to hold innocent hostages for over 600 days after butchering over 1,200 people on October 7th.” He’s right.

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. He writes frequently at TheEditors.com. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.

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