The Erez crossing on the Israel-Gaza Strip border. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

An attempt by the Hamas terrorist group to use cancer patients to sneak explosives into Israel was thwarted this week, and the New York Times hasn’t considered it news fit to print.

The Times, which has a bureau chief in Jerusalem and an extensive network of local stringers in Israel and the Gaza Strip, handled the story instead by picking up an Associated Press dispatch, for which it apparently couldn’t find space in its print edition.

From the AP article:

Two Palestinian sisters from Gaza were caught trying to smuggle explosives hidden in medicine containers into Israel as they were headed for cancer treatment at a Jerusalem hospital, authorities said, accusing Hamas militants of trying to use the women to carry out an attack.

Here are some other stories for which the New York Times did somehow manage to find room in its print edition this week:

A full page (and more) about “a small subculture of surfers” who ride the waves at night.

A nearly 2000-word profile of a Los Angeles dermatologist who treats a lot of people in the movie and television business.

An article claiming, inaccurately, that “elevated drug paraphernalia and New Age-inflected styles have emerged as unlikely must-have items of the season.”

If the Times can find room in the newspaper for the fluff, why can’t it find room for its own, staff-written version of a compelling and newsworthy story that underscores the depravity of Hamas and helps explain why Israel carefully scrutinizes even apparently innocuous traffic from Gaza? Given the vast resources and print space of the Times, there is no good reason.

More of Ira Stoll’s media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.