When the Associated Press published an article about top presidential race issues upon which U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are “worlds apart” on Aug. 18, the more than 175-year-old wire service stated that “the civilian death toll has now exceeded 40,000” in Gaza.
The following day, the AP amended the piece “to correct the reference to the civilian death toll from the war in Gaza, which is unknown.”
“The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, but it does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count,” the wire stated.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, which contacted the AP about the statistic, stated that the 83 subsequent corrections to the story—which it said ran in outlets including Seattle Times, Yahoo, MSN and many CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates—are “the most that CAMERA has prompted at once from a single wire service story.”
It calls the AP decision “a rare correction.”
The media watchdog “pointed out to AP editors that not even Hamas has alleged that more than 40,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been killed in the war between Israel and the terror organization,” it stated.
“While the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza has reported over 40,000 total deaths among Gaza’s residents, its data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants,” it added. “Israeli sources, meanwhile, estimate that over 17,000 of those killed are Hamas combatants.”
“AP’s grossly inflated and unfounded civilian casualty figure fuels pernicious false narratives accusing Israel of genocide, further inflaming the conflict,” stated Tamar Sternthal, the media watchdog’s Israel office director.
Sternthal added that the wire’s “misreporting has an immeasurable impact. One AP error can distort public understanding globally and contribute to an escalation of hostilities”
“We are pleased that AP corrected so promptly and responsibly, and are cheered by the vast and speedy dissemination of the correction,” she stated. “But we are also deeply concerned that such a basic error got past editors in the first place.”
Gilead Ini, a senior research analyst, told JNS that there are “no perfectly reliable casualty numbers.”
“At points in the past, Israeli estimates of Gaza casualties were somewhat lower than figures given by the Hamas government. In normal circumstances, local authorities would be better placed to assess casualties, but we know Hamas—including its health ministry—has lied for public relations benefit,” Ini said.
“Most memorably, Hamas had claimed Israel killed 500 people at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital,” he added. “Though the blast was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket that killed a small percentage of the claimed number.”