Jenin Fatalities Cover Up: Twelve Palestinians and One Israeli Soldier

By: Tamar Sternthal July 14, 2023

Designated terror organizations have claimed at least 10 out of the 12 Palestinian fatalities from Israel’s military incursion last week into Jenin, and Palestinian officials have not attempted to revive the “Jenin massacre” myth of 2002, in which government spokespeople infamously fabricated that Israeli troops wantonly slaughtered thousands of Palestinians.

Nevertheless, some leading Western news outlets have inexcusably concealed the salient fact that almost all killed in the recent raid were confirmed members of terror organizations and have whitewashed the minors belonging to terror organizations as “children,” while completely erasing their terror affiliations.

Thus, nine days after Israel’s July 5 withdrawal from Jenin, leading news agency Associated Press has yet to report that at least 10 out of the 12 Palestinian fatalities were confirmed members of the various designated Palestinian terror organizations, even though that information has been known for over a week. 

The July 12 story, “Palestinian president visits Jenin refugee camp after devastating Israeli military raid” is a case in point. It states that Israel “killed at least 12 Palestinians,” without mentioning their terror affiliations. 
In contrast, about the Israeli fatality, AP does not his military status, stating, “An Israeli soldier was also killed in the operation . . . “
Given that AP specifies that the Israeli killed was a soldier, why does the same coverage neglect to report that 10 of the 12 Palestinian fatalities were confirmed to be combatants affiliated with various designated terror organizations? Indeed, Palestinian authorities have not reported the death of a single civilian during the Jenin incursion.
As Reuters rightly reported:
At least 12 Palestinians, most confirmed as militant fighters, were killed and around 100 wounded in an incursion that began with late-night drone strikes, followed by a sweep involving more than 1,000 Israeli troops. One Israeli soldier was killed. . . .
 
[The Israeli army] said all the Palestinians killed were armed fighters. Islamic Jihad claimed eight as members, with Hamas claiming another. (Emphasis added.)
Similarly, The New York Times commendably reported the day of Israel’s withdrawal from Jenin:
Among the 12 Palestinians killed in the Jenin operation, four were under 18, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and at least nine were claimed by Palestinian militant groups as fighters by Wednesday evening — eight of them by Islamic Jihad, including a 16-year-old boy. Israel said that all of the Palestinians who were killed were combatants. But the Palestinian authorities did not specify whether any who died included civilians.
[a]n examination of the names of the fatalities indicated that at least ten of them were terrorist operatives, most of them young. Four of them were PIJ operatives, two were from al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (AAMB), two from Fatah and one from Hamas.
Some of the AP stories report:
The Israeli military has claimed it killed only militants, but it has not provided details. [See, for instance, “As Israel ends 2-day West Bank offensive. . . ” July 6]
What is the point in citing the IDF’s failure to produce details when the terror organizations themselves have already identified their own fighters? 
Relatedly, much of AP’s recent coverage fails to report that the vast majority of Palestinians killed this year have been combatants. The aforementioned July 12 article, for example, ends:

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year, while at least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis. 

Some past AP stories over the course of this year have maintained that “almost half” of the Palestinians killed in 2023 were militants. CAMERA’s detailed breakdown, substantiated with careful documentation, indicates that the vast majority were combatants. Without access to AP’s data, it’s impossible to evaluate the source of the discrepancy. 
AP was not the only major wire agency to conceal the fact that terror groups claimed almost all of the Jenin fatalities as their own combatants. Agence France Presse stories noting the Jenin fatalities one after the other also failed to report the confirmed terror affiliations of those killed in Jenin, while demonstrating a double standard with respect to the Israeli fatality.
They too inconsistently reported that “Twelve Palestinians and one Israel soldier” were killed during Israel’s incursion last week into Jenin. See, for instance, “Abbas to make landmark Jenin visit after deadly Israeli raid.”

Following communication with CAMERA pointing out the media outlet’s ongoing failure to report that the various terror organizations had identified at least 10 out of the 12 Jenin fatalities as their own fighters, AFP subsequently introduced the gross charge that Israeli killed noncombatant children, writing:

The two-day Israeli raid last week was the largest such operation in years, involving hundreds of troops, drone strikes and armoured bulldozers. It killed 12 Palestinians including children and militants from a local armed group the Jenin Brigades. (Emphasis added.)

This language ignores the fact that the so-called “children” belonged to terror organizations, a fact agreed upon by both Israel and the terror groups themselves, which confirmed all but one of them (Mustafa Qassem, 16) as their own combatants.

Nur Marshoud (16)

Majdi Ararawi, 17 Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Majdi Arari (17)

Ali al-Ghoul (17)

By depicting confirmed members of terror organizations as simply “children,” AFP, along with The Wall Street Journal, are covering up a phenomenon recently noted by the European Parliament in the context of July 12, 2023 recommendations regarding relations with the Palestinian government:

deplore the problematic and hateful content in Palestinian school textbooks and study material, which has yet to be removed; underline that education and pupils’ access to peaceful and unbiased textbooks are essential, especially in the context of the rising involvement of teenagers in terrorist attacks … [emphasis added]

Moreover, the media outlets’ erasure of the slain teens’ involvement in terror organizations yields a child-killing charge echoing centuries-old blood libels about Jews murdering innocent gentile children. And with that the news organizations are “[u]sing the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis,” itself a manifestation of antisemitism according to the widely-accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition.

See also “Times Corrects False Claim About Palestinian Killed in Jenin”

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