NY Times Forgets “War Crimes” When Reporting Iranian Strikes on Civilians

By: Gilead Ini June 16, 2025

Iran’s missile barrages into Israel have killed 24 Israelis. Every one was a civilian.

Whether this is because Iran has been aiming at civilian apartment buildings with no military utility or because many of its ballistic missiles can’t be accurately aimed and are indiscriminate by nature, the strikes have been described as violations of international humanitarian law and a “gross war crime.”

Damage to homes in Rishon Letzion after an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel.

But a look at nearly 50 articles on Israel-Iran fighting suggests the paper has ignored concerns about the legality of Iran’s attacks. A search for the text law (as in “international law” or “laws of armed conflict”), legal (as in “illegal,” “not legal,” or “legality”), or crime (as in “war crime”) in relevant articles listed on the New York Times “Middle East” page found that the paper has avoided those terms in reference to Iranian missile fire.

This is true even in pieces with titles like “‘We Couldn’t Breathe’: An Israeli City Wakes Up to Carnage”; “Iranian Strikes Kill at Least 8 in Israel as Conflict Enters Fourth Day”; and “Israel Wakes Up to More Casualties After Second Night of Fighting,” which were explicitly about strikes on civilians. One reports, for example, “Residents of Tamra, an Arab town in northern Israel, mourned three women and a girl on Sunday — all members of the same family — killed in the attacks after an Iranian missile directly struck their home, reducing much of it to rubble.” (The web search was corroborated by a similar search on the Nexis news database.) 

A photograph on the New York Times website underscores that the paper is fully aware of Iran’s strikes on civilian infrastructure.

That doesn’t mean the Times refrained entirely from references to international law. Reporters did quote authoritarian regimes — Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Egypt — charging Israel with violating the law. Another piece quoted the Houthis, a Yemeni group whose motto includes the slogan “A curse upon the Jews,” accusing Israel with “crimes” in the region.

The New York Times hasn’t only looked past Iran’s adherence to international law. Some reporting resembled apologia for Iran’s strikes on civilians. One story, for example, offered the following caveat: “It was not immediately clear whether the damage and deaths had been caused by the missiles themselves or interceptors sent to shoot them down, or falling fragments of both.” (Such caution isn’t standard practice. With few exceptions, the paper’s reporting on rounds of fighting in Gaza has ignored the phenomenon of misfired Palestinian rockets when mentioning Palestinian casualties.)

In another article, a reporter made a point of offering a three-paragraph rejoinder to Israeli concerns that Iran is aiming at civilians. Under the heading “What Have the Iranians Been Trying to Hit?,” the piece states:

Many of the sites struck by Iranian missiles appear to be inside Israeli cities. Israel has accused Iran of intentionally aiming at civilian areas.

It is unclear whether any sensitive military or infrastructure sites have been hit. Officials do not disclose such information, saying it would aid the enemy.

But Israel is a relatively small country — only slightly larger than New Jersey. Most of its population lives in the crowded coastal plain. And the military maintains bases and camps in many populated areas, as well as in more remote parts of the country.

A residential tower block that suffered a direct hit early Saturday is part of a popular entertainment district, filled with cafes and restaurants. It is also close to the main military and government headquarters in Tel Aviv, which was most likely the intended target.

Later on Saturday, missiles were aimed at the port city of Haifa. Israel’s largest oil refinery is in the Haifa Bay area. (Emphasis added)

By contrast, when another piece shared Iranian claims that it targeted “only Israeli military sites” despite evidence to the contrary, the reporters didn’t follow up with any such “but.” To the contrary, they tacitly accepted Iran’s claim, reporting that the death of Israelis represented a lack of “success” by the Islamic Republic:

Iran, in turn, has launched barrages of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel targeting what it says are military assets, but with less apparent success. At least three people have been killed and dozens more wounded.

The paper didn’t note that the three were civilians — two women in their 60s and a man in his 70s.

It is not unusual for the Times to deny or downplay war crimes by those attacking Israel. A few days ago, for example, a New York Times story about a Hamas terror leader’s base hidden under a Gaza hospital cast the straightforward illegality of such shielding as merely an Israeli claim, even while citing the law itself and multiple “experts” when pondering the legality of Israel’s strike on the terror leader.

Past coverage has likewise erased anti-Israel war crimes.

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