CAMERA’s Israel office prompted corrections in Haaretz‘s English edition, both in print and online, after the Israeli daily wrongly reported that an Israeli aistrike hit an encampment of displaced Gazans seeking shelter in the Gaza Strip, killing dozens.
In fact, as the Hebrew edition and the subsequent corrections made clear, secondary explosions — possibly sparked by a flying shrapnel from a nearby airstrike on Hamas terrorists — were the cause of the deadly May 26 fire. No airstrike hit the Rafah tent encampment.
The front-page May 28 English print edition article, which also appears online here, had initially misreported (“Killing of civilians in Rafah raises global pressure for a cease-fire”): “For reasons that remain unclear, there was a second airstrike on an adjacent tent encampment.”
But the Hebrew edition refers to a “secondary hit,” which suggests the involvement of shrapnel or fragments – not a “second airstrike.” The Hebrew reads:
For reasons that remain unclear, there was a secondary hit on the adjacent crowded tent encampment.
In both languages, the article then notes the possibility of a fragment hitting the tent encampment, a scenario which negates the second airstrike reporting:
It’s possible that a fragment from one of the bombs strayed into the camp, causing a large fire there.
Moreover, in his May 28 press conference, which Haaretz covered, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari made no mention of a “second airstrike” which hit the tent area, but he did refer to secondary explosions. Haaretz reported May 29 (“Israeli Army Investigates If Weapons Explosions Ignited Deadly Fire in Rafah Tent Camp After Airstrike“):
IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said it was still unclear what set off the deadly blaze, but added that the 17 kilogram munitions used in the strike were believed to be too small to have set off such a big fire.“We are looking into all possibilities including the option that weapons stored in a compound next to our target which we did not know of may have ignited as a result of the strike,” he told a televised briefing, adding that footage of the incident indicated there were secondary explosions following the strike. [Emphasis added.]
In response to communication from CAMERA, Haaretz commendably and forthrightly corrected. The correction on page 2 of today’s print edition states:Due to a translation error, Amos Harel’s article “Killing of civilians in Rafah raises global pressure for a cease-fire,” published May 28, stated that a second strike hit a tent encampment. It should have said a piece of shrapnel.
While the possibility of shrapnel sparking the fire has not yet been confirmed, the correction’s clarification that an airstrike did not hit the tent encampment is an important improvement. The digital article now accurately states:
For reasons that remain unclear, there was a secondary explosion at an adjacent tent encampment. It’s possible that a fragment from one of the bombs strayed into the camp, causing a large fire there.
Contrary to common journalistic practice, no correction is appended to the online article alerting readers to the change.
This is the second time this week in which Haaretz corrected English-language mistranslations of Hebrew reporting by veteran journalist Amos Harel. Previously, Haaretz published a correction making clear that Israel did not close the Rafah crossing. (Egypt did.)
For additional instances in which misinformation about Israel appears in Haaretz‘s English edition, but not in the media outlet’s parallel Hebrew item, please see “Haaretz, Lost in Translation.”