The Media Revives ‘Famine’ Libel and Distorted Casualty Counts to Slander Israel

Media outlets spread two baseless reports that demonized Israel last weekend, despite clear evidence that debunks them: the eternally “imminent” Gaza famine, and the accusation that 70 percent of casualties in the enclave are women and children.

The first claim was made by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC) — the same body that had acknowledged its own false famine assessment back in June. The second claim was made by the United Nations Human Rights Office, which admitted it used a non-representative sample of “verified” casualties only.

Yet media outlets were all too happy to parrot both claims while turning a blind eye to the gaping holes in their narrative.

“Looming” Famine — Again

Any journalist tasked with covering the FRC’s Gaza reports should act with caution, recalling this body has admitted that its past famine assessments were simply wrong.

Yet not only was the FRC’s recent report widely covered, but there was no mention of its former mistakes.

IPC June report admits no famine in Gaza now or ever. Libel of “intentional starvation” & “starvation as method of war” are debunked. Mortality rate always proved it was a lie; famine would mean at least 20,000 deaths from hunger but only ~30 claimed by Hamas. Analysis: 1/ pic.twitter.com/Wf9wadOqqU

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) June 26, 2024

In fact, the media outlets that covered it — Reuters, The Guardian, The Washington Post, NBC News, and The New York Times — made the journalistic sin of reporting what might happen, although past evidence shows it never did.

This manipulation leaves what the media should be covering unreported — the current situation of no famine, as it has been throughout the war despite all warnings.

Perhaps this is why most of the headlines carry the words “likely” or “likelihood.” Such wording would have any other story unrelated to Israel spiked, especially when it’s based on an unreliable source:

The problem is that the UN’s claims automatically make headlines, while Israel’s claims — that Hamas steals aid or that truckloads full of supplies are stranded at the Kerem Shalom crossing — rarely make it to the last paragraphs.

This is what the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing looks like RIGHT NOW.

Approximately 900 trucks worth of aid are waiting to be picked up by aid organizations.

Some of the aid is waiting there for months!

We continuously urge the UN aid agencies – pick up the aid so… pic.twitter.com/V3XA0zR4yO

— COGAT (@cogatonline) November 11, 2024

Casualty (Mis)Count

Another UN claim taken as gospel by the media was that 70 percent of Gaza dead are women and children.

In a demonstration of extreme journalistic malpractice, outlets that covered the story buried the fact it’s based only on a sample of 8,119 verified deaths. Out of this sample, only deaths that occurred in “residential buildings or similar housing” are counted, i.e. — excluding thousands of terrorists killed in combat. Not to mention that the UN itself admitted the verification process was “extremely challenging.”

It looks like it’s time for another installment in our regular segment, “How to Lie with Statistics about Fatalities in Gaza”, because a new “analysis” from @UNHumanRights has just dropped and all the mass media outlets are ecstatic.

Let’s start with the headline (I take BBC as… pic.twitter.com/OvK4mvYdnj

— Mark Zlochin – מארק זלוצ’ין༝ (@MarkZlochin) November 8, 2024

This skewed report can merit a story only if all the caveats are mentioned at its top.

Instead, media headlines from the BBC, CNN, Sky News, and The Guardian made it seem like the UN figures apply to all the war casualties in Gaza:

The Guardian went further, calling the UN report “the most detailed analysis of its kind yet.”

And Sky News had no problem speculating that the report “rings true:” “The UN’s report rings true with Palestinian claims that women and children represent a large proportion of those killed in the war.”

Sadly, there are only two options that can explain the flawed coverage of the FRC’s famine warning and the UN casualties report: it’s either bad journalism, or bias against Israel.

Usually the latter feeds 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.

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