GAZA WARResponsible Reporting: Citing the Gaza Health Ministry

Since the start of the Israel and Hamas conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry or Ministry of Health has been cited in over 900 articles published by eight of the largest news media sources in the United States with independent Middle East reporting.^[1] These sources include ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.  

Hamas, the terrorist organization, which has provided misleading or false information to reporters, distorts information about the casualties in Gaza. Hamas controls the Gaza Health Ministry, which is the predominant source of information on casualties in Gaza. The Washington Post quoted a reporter referring to the ministry’s spokesperson as the “only game in town” for casualty figures for journalists.

While some media outlets have recently begun to identify the Gaza Health Ministry as a Hamas-controlled entity, many do not, which constitutes an omission of a source’s clear bias.

United States National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said the White House will not use “numbers put out by an organization that’s run by a terrorist organization.” Luke Baker, a former Reuters Jerusalem bureau chief warned that “Hamas has a clear propaganda incentive to inflate civilian casualties as much as possible.” He added that “Any health official stepping out of line and not giving the death tolls that Hamas wants reported to journalists risks serious consequences.”

To illustrate Hamas’ influence on U.S. media reporting, ADL’s Media & Entertainment Institute conducted a systematic review of news articles citing the “Gaza Health Ministry” and related groups with and without reference to Hamas. We determined that news articles that mentioned “Hamas” within ten^[2] words of “Gaza Health Ministry” and related terms sufficiently clarified that Hamas runs the ministry.

We assessed articles from major news sources^[3] from October 7 through November 12. Between October 7 and 17, most articles did not include specific mention that the ministry is run by Hamas or that the ministry has provided misleading or false information to reporters in the past. Only 8% of articles written between October 7 and October 16 caveat the information they report from the Gaza Health Ministry. Instead, the norm appeared for journalists and news sources to cite information from the Gaza Health Ministry at face value. At its peak, there were 38 articles published on October 13 across these eight major news sources citing information from the ministry without explicit mention that it is controlled by Hamas.