On August 6, a rocket fell in Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip, catastrophically killing seven Palestinians, including four children.
Those with a tidy view of warfare likely viewed Israel as responsible. After all, the rocket fell during a round of fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Islamic Jihad, during which Israeli struck at Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza and the Palestinian terror group fired rockets toward towns in Israel.
But those familiar with the history of Palestinian misfires might think twice. During a round of fighting last summer, 680 Hamas rockets fell short, landing in the Gaza Strip instead of Israel and killing perhaps scores of Palestinians. In this month’s brief conflict with Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, about 200 Palestinian rockets meant for Israeli cities instead landed in Gaza, killing an estimated 15 Palestinians — among them the seven killed in Jabaliya, according to radar data by the Israeli military and an investigation by the Associated Press.
Enter NBC News, which seemed eager to hide this information from its readers, effectively covering for Islamic Jihad by burying, obscuring, and misreporting the facts.
The Jabaliya Explosion
The Jabaliya blast that killed Khalil Abu Hamada, one of the seven Palestinians killed and the subject of a somber NBC News human interest piece, occurred at around 9pm that Saturday evening.
Israel had not conducted any airstrikes in the area at the time, security officials noted, and hadn’t for the preceding two hours. Islamic Jihad, though, “had announced a rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, just north of Jebaliya, at around the same time as the explosion,” the Associated Press reported.
Israel released video reportedly showing the Palestinian barrage, in which one of the rockets can be seen drifting wildly off course and falling short.
Watch this failed rocket launch which killed children in Gaza.
This barrage of rockets was fired by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in Gaza last night.
The rocket in the red circle misfired, killing Palestinian civilians—including children—in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/55zSU3fsRY
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 7, 2022
Israel also shared radar tracking data showing several misfires from that launch, including the one that hit Jabaliya at the time.
Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of Israel’s Knesset and a staunch critic of Israel, had initially posted on Twitter a photo of casualties from the incident along with a scornful message suggesting Israel was responsible for the incident. Tellingly, he later deleted the post, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The Associated Press, which sent reporters to Jabaliya, described what was effectively a coverup at the impact site: “When the AP visited the site on Monday, the casing was gone and the hole had been filled in with dirt. Palestinians are usually keen to display evidence of Israeli airstrikes to international media.” The journalists, AP noted, “saw none of the telltale signs of an Israeli strike — the wide craters left by F-16s or the narrow holes caused by drone strikes.”
Radar data depicted by Israel shows the path of rockets from a barrage misfired and struck Jabaliya and other locations in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials, who accepted responsibility for other strikes in which civilians were caught in the crossfire, were categorical in comments about the Jabaliya incident. “A failed rocket attack by Islamic Jihad is responsible for the killing of children in Jabalya,” wrote Lior Haiat, head of diplomacy at the prime minister’s office. Video evidence proves “beyond a shadow of a doubt” that the incident wasn’t caused by Israeli fire. “It has been irrefutably proven that this incident was the result of the misfiring of a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad.” Israel’s investigation “unequivocally showed that this was not an Israeli strike but rather a rocket launched from within the Gaza Strip which fell in the heart of Jabalya.”
The AP was more subtle after its investigation, but the message was as clear: Israel’s assessment about Palestinian casualties caused by Palestinian rockets, including the one that hit Jabaliya, “appears consistent with independent reporting by The Associated Press,” the wire service reported.
NBC Obscures the Facts
Clarity, though, was not what NBC News seemed to strive for.
Its piece on the incident, by Wajjeh Abu Zarefah, Paul Goldman and Corky Siemaszko, opened as follows:
It took five rounds of in vitro fertilization treatments for a Palestinian woman named Najwa Abu Hamadeh to conceive her only child.
It took just one missile to take her son away from her forever.
And over the next 17 heart-wrenching paragraphs, it left readers to believe that the missile was an Israeli one. That Israel caused the mother’s “mourning”; the “screaming”; the “grieving”; the “choking dust and wreckage”; the “search”; the “body”; the “future … wiped away in one short burst.”
Only readers who made it to paragraph 20 — those who read past paragraphs of pain, and past an explicit reference to Israeli jets “hitting Gaza” — would encounter a buried hint. And even then, NBC News seemed intent on concealing the facts from readers. The vividness of the preceding paragraphs suddenly disappeared, replaced by murky writing and misrepresentations.
The final paragraphs of the piece cited Israel and AP, but carefully tiptoed around their most relevant conclusions:
Israel estimated a total of 47 Palestinians were killed, including 14 killed by misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets — numbers that could include Khalil.
This is an error of omission. Israel didn’t say that various Palestinian misfires could have killed Khalil. They said that one absolutely did.
The Israeli military said it carried out no operations in the area of the Jebaliya refugee camp at the time of the strike that killed Khalil. It released video footage that purportedly showed a barrage of rockets fired by militants, with one falling short.
Why does NBC opt to say “purported,” a word it often (but not exclusively) uses to describe fake video? More importantly, why do they again conceal that Israel explicitly said that footage was of the specific incident in question?
The militant group had announced a rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, just north of Jebaliya, around the same time as the explosion, according to The Associated Press.
Why does NBC stop short of sharing other damning details from AP’s investigation, including its statement that its findings were consistent with Israel’s investigation? And might it help readers to understand that Islamic Jihad isn’t just a “militant group,” but also an internationally designated terrorist organization?
Israel said Islamic Jihad fired 1,100 rockets toward it in total over the three days, with about 200 of them falling short in Gaza.
Again, a grave error of omission, in what looks like an attempt to conceal Israel’s specific findings about the subject of NBC’s piece.
The militant group has not responded to Israel’s claims that some civilians were killed by the misfired rockets. It has held Israel responsible for all the deaths.
In another error of omission, NBC refers to Israeli claims about “some civilians,” but conceals its unequivocal assertions about the specific civilian that’s relevant to the piece.
NBC News has not verified the claims of either side.
Nor has it fairly reported on the claims.
NBC News told CAMERA that its report is fair, and refuses to correct or clarify the piece.
NBC vs Al Mayadeen TV
Al Mayadeen, a pro-Hezballah satellite television station based in Lebanon, captured video another of Islamic Jihad’s rockets that landed in Gaza. In an Aug. 7 clip shared widely online and translated by MEMRI, a rocket is seen fired from Gaza, spinning wildly, and quickly losing altitude before it lands with a boom close to the cameraman position.
As the video continues, the flustered reporter continues to speak as if describing a routine, successful launch, before eventually whispering to the cameraman, “Please, turn the camera away, turn the camera upward.”
It’s no surprise that a pro-Hezbollah station would want to avert its lens from the facts. Islamic Jihad’s responsibility for destruction in Gaza just isn’t part of the narrative. But for NBC News to effectively do the same with its prose — to take pains to prevent readers from learning what Israel and the Associated Press said about their respective investigations — is more surprising. And it’s a terrible disservice to NBC’s audience.