The Daily Mail’s report on the funerals and aftermath of the murder of three Israeli teens contains multiple errors as well as bias. Let’s begin with the headline:
Why is “killed by Hamas” in quotation marks? As for “revenge bombings of Gaza,” this falsely asserts that Israeli actions to prevent rocket attacks from Gaza is motivated purely by revenge rather than the need to protect Israeli citizens from terror.
As Israeli revenge bombings began to hit Gaza, mourners turned out in force in the boys’ home city of Modi’in, 20 miles southeast of Tel Aviv.
Aside from the repeated assertion of Israeli revenge, this sentence demonstrates just how little research has gone into the article. While the boys were buried together in Modi’in’s cemetery, none of them actually lived in the city.
Fighter jets unleashed a rain of missiles along the West Bank and a Hamas member was shot dead last night as Israel carried out its retaliation for the murder of the three teenagers.
Contrary to this claim, no missiles have been fired by Israeli fighter jets “along the West Bank.” This is simply untrue. (There have been air strikes on Gaza at this time, however.) The description of a “rain of missiles” is also an embellishment that implies that were this to be the case, Israeli missile strikes are indiscriminate. In fact, Israeli air strikes are carried out with the utmost precision to avoid collateral damage.
In addition, the Hamas member was not simply “shot dead.” Abu Zaghah, was apparently killed when he threw a grenade at forces carrying out an arrest raid, an important piece of missing context.
You can send your considered comments to the Daily Mail – editorial@dailymailonline.co.uk and news@dailymail.co.uk
UPDATE
Amendments have been made to the article both in the text and in the headline, which now reads:
