FILE PHOTO: Yael, Adi and Mika Alexander, the family of Edan Alexander, the American-Israeli and Israel Defense Forces soldier taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, pose for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at the Alexander’s home in Tenafly, New Jersey, U.S., December 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stephani Spindel/File Photo

Once hostilities resumed in Gaza, it didn’t take long for the international media to revert to their familiar agenda of whitewashing Hamas while demonizing Israel.

From omitting critical information and treating Hamas like a legitimate actor, to blaming Israel and making an equivalency between the terror group and IDF soldiers — news outlets made an effort to adjust the facts to suit their narrative.

Sky News, for example, completely omitted the fact that two teens killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza were the relatives of a senior Hamas official who was targeted. Following our complaint, the network updated its piece to note that the IDF identified him as their grandfather.

The AP sneakily omitted Israel’s denial that it had struck a United Nations compound in Gaza. Thus, the wire service managed to demonize the Jewish state without even naming it:

Sneaky: While @AP doesn’t directly attribute this incident to or name Israel, it still fails to include the IDF’s outright denial.

Letting your audience assume Israeli responsibility isn’t journalism, it’s deliberately misleading. pic.twitter.com/dDUTOKGmKU

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 20, 2025

Also on the Israel demonization front, ABC News had to remove an unverified story saying that Israel’s “occupation forces” dropped leaflets calling on Gazans to “vanish:”

Since Oct 7th, I have seen some horrendous reporting by the int’l press, but this by @ABC, would have to be one of the worst, morally inexcusable and tantamount to a blood libel!

Had they actually checked with IDF (whom they by the way refer to as ‘occupation forces’), they… pic.twitter.com/6rmUhEPG2B

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) March 20, 2025

And The Washington Post’s editorial board compared Israel’s war of self-defense against Hamas with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine:

There’s a massive difference between the demands of a democratically elected leader dealing with a war started by a terrorist org and an autocrat trying to gain an advantage after invading a neighboring state.

Appallingly, @washingtonpost‘s editorial board sees an equivalence.… pic.twitter.com/YnVa7ey7Vn

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 20, 2025

The Irish Times went further, publishing an opinion piece claiming that Israel “indiscriminately rained down bombs” on Gaza:

Every IDF missile is accounted for. Every operation is targeted.

Israel does not “indiscriminately rain down” bombs. Period.

But that won’t stop @IrishTimes from publishing a lie. https://t.co/aHBd6Ie03F pic.twitter.com/4agcMcBlYu

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 20, 2025

Meanwhile, The Guardian did not hesitate to quote a Hamas official lecturing the world about morality:

A Hamas official lectures the international community on morality. 🤦

Unsurprisingly, @guardian can’t see the absurdity of quoting him. pic.twitter.com/M31R3f6Tpv

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 19, 2025

And in another attempt to soften Hamas’ barbarism, The New York Times said that Israelis were infuriated by the terror group’s “elaborate” hostage release ceremonies, not by the crude violation of international law that was on display.

Really, @nytimes?

Was it the “elaborate” nature of the Hamas hostage release ceremonies that infuriated Israelis?

Or maybe it was Hamas’ violation of international law — parading & publicly humiliating emaciated hostages — that should have caused universal outrage? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/3hu3tMXQf0

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 20, 2025

Some outlets resorted to mental gymnastics to make their case. The Times of London, for example, drew a moral equivalence between the terrorists, who deliberately murdered Israeli hostages, and IDF soldiers, who made a tragic mistake:

Reprehensible, @thetimes:

✖️ Making a moral equivalence between Hamas deliberately murdering 6 hostages in a tunnel and the IDF killing 3 hostages in a tragic accident.

✖️ Implying a “clumsy intervention” by the IDF, rather than Hamas, is responsible for the 6 hostages’ deaths. pic.twitter.com/6uUz5zX9Rw

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 19, 2025

Unfortunately, it seems like news outlets stopped reporting the news, seemingly conditioned to see reality of what’s happening in Gaza in simplistic terms of victim and aggressor — even when the latter is defending itself against the former.

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.