Washington Post Torched for Spreading Hamas Claims, Then Quietly Walking Them Back

The Washington Post faced significant backlash over a June 1, 2025, article claiming that Israeli troops killed at least 31 people near a U.S.-backed aid distribution site in Gaza’s Rafah area, citing the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.

The original headline, “Israeli troops kill over 30 near U.S. aid site in Gaza, health officials say,” and a related social media post, viewed 2.4 million times, were criticized for presenting unverified claims as fact without adequately noting Israel’s denial or the lack of independent verification.

The IDF stated they were “unaware of injuries caused by IDF fire” at the site and were reviewing the incident, while the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which operates the aid site, released security footage showing no attack occurred, contradicting the initial claims.

Yesterday (Tuesday) the Post deleted the social media post and issued a correction, admitting that the article and its early versions “didn’t meet Post fairness standards” by failing to clarify that the attribution of deaths to Israel came solely from the Gaza Health Ministry, not verified facts.

The updated article acknowledged “no consensus about who was responsible for the shootings” and noted a dispute over responsibility. Critics, including posts on X, accused the Post of initially spreading Hamas-linked claims without scrutiny, with some calling it a “lie” and others highlighting the outlet’s history of questionable Gaza coverage. For instance, a 2024 Washington Institute study noted the Post’s heavy reliance on anonymous Gaza sources, 72% of such citations in major U.S. media, raising concerns about journalistic rigor.

Security footage from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which operates the aid site, showed no attack occurred, contradicting the initial claims. Critics, including U.S. lawmakers and policy experts, slammed the Post for what they see as a pattern of biased reporting favoring Hamas. “Notice the Washington Post always makes errors in one direction: in Hamas’s favor,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “Far-left media outlets are more concerned with attacking Israel than reporting the facts” (JNS).

The controversy reignited accusations of systemic anti-Israel bias in the Post’s Gaza coverage. Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, remarked, “Isn’t it funny that of all the corrections the Washington Post has made since Oct. 7, 2023, it has yet to say it fell short of its fairness standards by failing to ‘give proper weight’ to Hamas’s version of events?”

A 2024 Washington Institute study highlighted the Post’s heavy reliance on anonymous Gaza sources, 72% of such citations in major U.S. media, raising concerns about journalistic rigor. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the outlet “fake news,” while former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said the correction was “not good enough,” adding, “Something this incendiary needs to be fact-checked before published. People die from this kind of malpractice, and no one will even read the correction” as reported by JNS.

Victoria Coates of the Heritage Foundation accused the Post of “20 months of mindlessly parroting the Gaza ‘Ministry of Health’ lies,” calling it “malfeasance”. Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted, “More proof of how broken the Washington Post’s Israel-Gaza coverage is post-Oct. 7. Great reporters elsewhere at the paper, but this team keeps getting key facts wrong, and the slant is always against the same side.”

Noah Rothman, a senior writer at National Review Online, pointed to recent unverified claims, including Gaza famine narratives and inflated casualty figures, stating, “You just had to subordinate your intense distaste for Israel to the facts. That has proven a bridge too far for much of the global journalistic establishment”, per JNS.

JNS added that Philip Klein, editor of National Review Online, questioned if the Post was “deliberately spreading anti-Israel propaganda knowing damage will be done before the correction”.

The incident follows prior Post corrections, such as a December 2023 story on Israeli treatment of premature babies, and scrutiny of a former Al Jazeera correspondent on its staff. With restricted access to Gaza forcing reliance on Hamas-influenced sources, the Post’s reporting continues to disgust everyone (but shock no one) with critics arguing that late corrections fail to undo the damage of initial misreports.