Times and Indy obfuscates Israeli civilian victims of terror

Articles in both The Times and Independent on yesterday’s IDF attack which killed three Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders included context on the regional violence which grossly misled readers on the Israelis and Palestinians killed in attacks this year.

The Times article (“Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill militants and children”, May 9), written by Anshel Pfeffer and Richard Spencer, concluded with the following:

A total of 105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in east Jerusalem and the West Bank this year, about half of them militants or alleged attackers, according to the Associated Press. At least 20 people have died in Palestinian attacks on Israel over the same period.

The Indy report (“Israeli airstrikes on Gaza kill 13 Palestinians including three Islamic Jihad militant commanders”, May 9), by Namita Singh, similarly concluded with this:

Since the start of 2023, 105 Palestinians – around half of them militants or alleged attackers – have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to an Associated Press tally. At least 20 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Israel over the same period.

First, both the Times and Indy rely on AP’s misleading Palestinian casualty count, which fails to note that the overwhelming majority (more than just “half”) of those killed in 2023 have been either terrorists or males otherwise involved with violent clashes at the time of their deaths.  Very few uninvolved civilians were killed during IDF’s ongoing West Bank anti-terror operations. (See our casualty count here.)

Also, the Times and Indy say that 20 “people” in Israel have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the same period, but fail to include the important information that 19 of the 20 were civilians.

Israeli terror victims, May 2022-April 2023, courtesy of the MFA.

We’ve contacted both outlets asking that they revise the articles to include the number of civilians killed.

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