NBC News reported death figures provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry on Thursday — without distinguishing between terrorists and civilians who were killed, and without notifying readers that the figures came from a Hamas-run agency.
NBC’s Chantal da Silva reported: “About 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the result of Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion after Hamas’ terror attack.”
Some of those deaths are not the “result” of Israeli military action. The Israeli government estimates that roughly one in five Hamas rockets misfires and lands in Gaza, often killing Palestinian civilians. Moreover, Hamas hides among Palestinian civilians, forcing them into the line of fire.
NBC failed to state how many of those reported dead were Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, and how many were civilians. The Israeli military recently estimated that one out of every three people reported killed in the war in Gaza is a terrorist.
NBC also failed to note whether the numbers include hundreds of Hamas terrorists who were killed in Israel while attacking Israeli civilians. Nor, as noted above, did NBC tell readers that the Gaza Health Ministry is controlled by the Hamas terror group.
Later in the article, NBC quoted Israelis — but only Israelis who want the fighting to stop, not the overwhelming majority of Israelis who want the war to continue until Hamas is eliminated and can no longer threaten Israel with repeated terrorist attacks.
The closest NBC came to reflecting that sentiment was to quote a man who asked “how can I let my family live next to the terrorists?” while also protesting in favor of a stop to the fighting that might prompt Hamas to release Israeli hostages.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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