Feb. 27 UPDATE, Los Angeles Times Corrects Digital Article
After The Los Angeles Times failed to correct in response to CAMERA's repeated communications wtih editors, the watchdog's staff enlisted members of the public to reiterate the request to correct the demonstrable falsehood that most of the remaining hostages are soldiers. Shortly after letters from the public began to arrive at the paper's inboxes, editors corrected the online article, making clear that in fact 13 of the 73 remaining hostages remaining at that time were members of Israel's security forces. See below for a detailed update.
Feb. 19 — "The Palestinian is a civilian even if he takes up arms, and the Israeli is a colonizer even if he rests on the beach," a pro-Hamas sentiment prevalent for years on Arabic social media marks all Israelis as legitimate military targets.
In the journalistic equivalent of this wholesale delegitimization of Israel and its citizens regardless of the facts, a June 2021 letter signed by hundreds of Western journalists, including nine from the Los Angeles Times, exhorted that all coverage of Israeli-Palestinian issues should be filtered through the distorting prism of “Israel’s military occupation and its system of apartheid.”
This week, Los Angeles Times coverage seemingly embraced this approach, adopting without challenge Hamas' baseless definition of all male hostages between the ages of 19 and 49 as soldiers.
.@latimes, please correct. Of 73 remaining hostages, most are civilians, NOT soldiers. The list includes 12 soldiers, 1 policeman. The rest -- 60 men, women and children including Thai, Nepali and Tanzanian citizens -- are civilians. #BringThemAllHome https://t.co/DBEtDytSCg pic.twitter.com/5EDPzh4WGh
— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) February 17, 2025
In fact, of the 73 remaining hostages the overwhelming majority are civilians, not soldiers. The group of 73 hostages includes just 12 soldiers and one policeman, information which is readily available in countless news reports covering individual hostages. An additional six civilians fought in their local community civil defense teams without being called for reserve duty, making them civilians and not soldiers. CAMERA provided Times officials with the names of the 13 members of the Israeli security forces, and requested that editors respond with the names and details of the military service of any service people the paper believes that the media watchdog overlooked.
Twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, kidnapped from their homes in Kfar Aza, are among many young male civilians still held hostage by Hamas
The Times has responded to CAMERA that they will review the correction request. As of this writing, the paper has yet to publish a correction. Stay tuned for any updates.
The @LATimes FALSELY claims most remaining Hamas hostages are soldiers. The reality? The vast majority are civilians—until recently, this included the Bibas children, who we now know suffered an unspeakable fate at the hands of Hamas terrorists. pic.twitter.com/OnC5eYYpoO
— CAMERAorg (@CAMERAorg) February 21, 2025
Feb. 27 Update: Los Angeles Times Corrects Digital Article
After The Los Angeles Times failed to correct in response to CAMERA's repeated communications with editors, the watchdog's staff enlisted members of the public to reiterate the request to correct the demonstrable falsehood that most of the remaining hostages are soldiers. Shortly after letters from the public began to arrive at the paper's inboxes, editors corrected the online article, making clear that in fact just13 of the 73 remaining hostages remaining at that time were members of Israel's security forces. Though the wording of the article is unchanged, a correction immediately following the passage states:
For the record:
5:05 p.m. Feb. 26, 2025 This article incorrectly reported that most of the more than 70 hostages — about half of them believed to be dead — still being held by Hamas in Gaza were male soldiers. At the time of publication, 13 of remaining hostages were soldiers.
Of the 13 hostages serving in Israel's security forces, 12 were soldiers in the army, and one was a policeman. We will update further when a correction appears in the print edition.
Separately, Los Angeles Times editors have yet to correct the erroneous claim also from this month that 750,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled in 1948. The vast majority of the hundreds of thousands who left in 1948 fled, often at the best of their own leaders, and were not expelled.
March 2 Update: LA Times Publishes Print Correction, JNS Corrects
On Feb. 28, The Times ran the following print edition correction:
Israeli hostages: In the Feb. 16 Section A, an article about the release of three hostages by Hamas said most of the more than 70 remaining hostages were male soldiers. At the time of publication, 13 of the remaining hostages were soldiers.
In addition, JNS today likewise corrected the identical error. The Feb. 26 Jewish news wire service had originally erred ("Four coffins returned to Israel, identification ongoing"): "More than 60 living and dead hostages, mostly male soldiers, remain in Gaza." In response to communication from CAMERA, the article now correctly states, "More than 60 hostages remain in Gaza, both living and dead." At the time, the bodies of civilians Tsachi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi, Itzik Elgarat and Shlomo Mansour had just been returned, but were not yet confirmed as theirs.
March 5 Update: Tribune News Service Clients Correct
The Tribune News Service, which syndicates Los Angeles Times content, yesterday sent the following notification to its clients regarding The Los Angeles Times correction:
EDITORS: A Los Angeles Times story that moved via Tribune News Service requires a correction. The story was headlined "Rejoicing, apprehension as 3 more hostages freed under Israel-Hamas ceasefire." It moved on the wire on Feb. 15.
The article incorrectly reported that most of the more than 70 hostages — about half of them believed to be dead — still being held by Hamas in Gaza were male soldiers. At the time of publication, 13 of the remaining hostages were soldiers.
Papers that used this story in print are asked to run a correction. Papers that are using this story online are asked to correct it or remove it.
From the Los Angeles Times: This article incorrectly reported that most of the more than 70 hostages — about half of them believed to be dead — still being held by Hamas in Gaza were male soldiers. At the time of publication, 13 of remaining hostages were soldiers. The article has been corrected to reflect this.
March 9 Update: Lawton Constitution Also Removes the Article
The Lawton Constitution (Oklahoma) has likewise removed the article.