“Israel targets journalists.”
“Israel targets health care workers.”
“Israel targets humanitarian aid workers.”
These libels were widespread in the media during the entirety of the two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. They have now resurfaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah’s attack on Israel in early March 2026, prompting retaliation. Recently, NBC advanced the Israel-is-targeting-healthcare-workers libel in an article titled “Scores of Lebanon’s paramedics killed in Israeli attacks,” by Chantal Da Silva and Zoya Awky (Apr. 27, 2026). The authors sourced comment only from anti-Israel entities, ignoring Hezbollah’s perfidious practices, and used a manipulative article structure.
No one claims that journalists, health care workers, humanitarian aid workers, or for that matter, garbage collectors, taxi drivers or shop owners weren’t inadvertently killed during the Israel-Hamas war (or any other conflict).
But the serious allegation that civilians in these professions were targeted for killing is a different topic entirely.
Da Silva and Awky Support Their Libel with a Stack of Anti-Israel Entities
The article reported the allegation that Israeli forces “directly targeted” an ambulance, resulting in one dead (Hasan Badawi) and one wounded. Israel has said the strike is under review, but it had been targeting a Hezbollah member. But the authors also cited the Lebanese health ministry for the proposition that at least 100 healthcare workers had died since Feb. 28, 2026.
While Da Silva and Awky were eager to report figures provided by a health ministry run by a Hezbollah lawmaker, they did not report on the number of dead Hezbollah operatives, despite the IDF having released an estimate (over 1,800).
In a bout of lazy journalism, the authors accessed their reliable Rolodex of eager-to-comment anti-Israel contacts to advance the libel that health workers who died in Lebanon were targeted by Israel. They reported on aid groups’ warnings about the “worldwide” trends of health and humanitarian workers being killed in recent years, adding that hundreds had died in Israeli operations. (Da Silva repeated this claim in her companion video but said “hundreds killed in Gaza under Israel’s offensive” according to the territory’s health ministry – which she did not indicate is run by Hamas).
They started with Tom Fletcher, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, who said more than 1,010 humanitarians were killed in three years, including more than 560 who died in Gaza and the West Bank during Israeli operations. If Fletcher’s name rings a bell, it’s likely because he is the U.N. official who made the outrageously false claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die in 48 hours back in May 2025.
To support their idea that what is happening in Lebanon is “part of a trend,” the authors turned to the anti-Israel organization Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) as well as Ken Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The statement the authors procured from MAP, alleging the IDF “does not recognize international law or any protected persons under international law,” was conclusory and nakedly partisan. The reliance on MAP for comment is poor journalistic judgment, given that the organization’s history of antisemitism and false claims prompted a warning from the UK Charity Commission in 2018 following complaints it was directing its funds “towards political propaganda rather than its stated purpose of providing medical aid.” The group still spreads propaganda. For example, it still has not removed its October 2023 social media post blaming Israel for what was later determined to be a misfired rocket by Palestinian Islamic Jihad on in the Al Ahli hospital parking lot.
Including Roth’s anti-Israel commentary is, at this point, a cliché, and something Da Silva has now done four times in 2026, according to a search. Roth supported the boycott of Israeli businesses and has served as a Hamas defender. Under his tenure at HRW, the organization promoted the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state via a Palestinian “right of return,” denied Hamas built tunnels under schools in Gaza, and more. Roth told the authors Israel had a history of targeting healthcare and rescue workers and that it used a “thin pretext of some enemy military presence” to do so. He claimed this was done in Gaza, and now in Lebanon, as part of its effort to drive out the civilian population and make territory unlivable. This bald-faced allegation ignored Hamas’ well-documented weaponization of hospitals: use of them as command centers, weapons depots, hostage holding and, and as a place of employment for many operatives.
Manipulative Structure for Maximum Impact
The article and video also manipulate by burying contradictory information. Israel’s information — that it targeted a Hezbollah member and was reviewing the strike — receives only a few words towards the top and bottom of the piece. The bulk of Israel’s statements appear in a total of four sentences, buried after 21 paragraphs, stating the IDF operates according to international law and does not target civilians, unlike Hezbollah, which uses human shields. This information is also sandwiched between anti-Israel allegations. As CAMERA has previously noted, this structure — intentionally or otherwise — deprioritizes the sandwiched information in readers’ memories.
Israel’s Allegation of Hezbollah Perfidy Went Unexplored by the Authors
In the article’s sparse comments allocated to the IDF, the authors reported how the IDF “accused [Hezbollah] of the ‘systematic use of ambulances and civilian infrastructure for terrorist purposes,’ [though] it has not made that allegation in the incident that killed Badawi.”
They emphasized that Badawi’s death was emblematic of a “trend.” They did not elaborate on, or investigate, the IDF’s allegation that Hezbollah uses ambulances and civilian infrastructure for terrorist purposes. They did not entertain the likelihood that perfidy could account for other paramedics killed either accidentally or because they are terrorists moonlighting as paramedics. Recent examples include the death of a “paramedic” revealed to be a Jihad fighter and the Israeli strike on a cell of Hezbollah military operatives dressed as paramedics and operating near an ambulance.
🎯STRUCK: A cell of Hezbollah military operatives who were dressed as paramedics and operated near an ambulance in southern Lebanon.
The military operatives systematically used ambulances to transfer weapons between northern to southern Lebanon. Additionally, dozens of rockets…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 30, 2026
The authors opted not to report on highly relevant video footage of weapons found in an ambulance and a Hezbollah weapons cache was discovered in a hospital. Perhaps none of this fit the narrative.
It is tragic when paramedics are killed during a war, and such a human-interest story would be appropriate for any news organization to tell. When the story relies heavily on a cadre of Israel-hating “experts” who have a history of making false claims, it becomes unreliable and manipulative.
For the Hebrew version of this post, see CAMERA Hebrew.