Evidently, the Guardian doesn’t have any file photos of Palestinian rockets

Elements of Islamic Jihad  in Gaza fired a rocket last night which exploded east of the Israeli city of Ashdod, setting off red alert sirens in both the Ashdod and Lakhish regions. Though no major injuries were reported, a 15-year-old girl was taken to an Ashdod hospital suffering from a panic attack following the blast. The IDF responded by striking a terror target in northern Gaza.

 Shortly after the Palestinian attack, the Guardian published a report – credited to “Agencies” – titled Unknown’ Gaza militants fired rocket at Israel, Hamas claims‘.

Here’s the photo they chose to illustrate the story.

guardian pic

First, note the caption under the photo chosen by the Guardian:

Most of the rocket fire from Gaza has ceased since the 2014 war between Palestinian militants and Israel, which left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins.

Their claim that the war left “much of Gaza in ruins” is actually misleading.

A comprehensive analysis by the blog Israellycool, of data published by OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), demonstrated that most of the damage from IDF attacks affected only “5 locations right on the border with Israel”. The rest of Gaza, including the main population areas of Gaza City, Jabaliya, Khan Yunes, Rafah and Deir el-Balah, the study concluded, was largely undamaged.

Moreover, regarding the photo, note that the Guardian decided to illustrate an article about a Palestinian terrorist attack on Israel with an image of a toppled minaret at a Gaza mosque from the summer war. Are we to conclude that photos of Palestinian rockets, rocket launchers or the destruction in Israeli cities caused by previous rocket attacks weren’t available?

Here’s how an alternative Guardian photo choice would appear if they had used the following still shot from a video released in August depicting a Hamas rocket-launching pad likely fired from areas heavily populated with civilians.

guardian pic
Photoshopped Guardian Photo

By failing to use an appropriate photo to illustrate a Palestinian terror attack on Israel, and by exaggerating the scale of the damage in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, we once again see how nearly every element of Guardian reports on Israel can be compromised by tendentious, misleading or inaccurate information.

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