The piece omitted the IDF’s rebuke, a serious malpractice given the lack of definitive proof for why the building collapsed, which is the central subject of the article. It leaves the readers with the word of terror-tied Palestinian authorities in Gaza alone, without clarifying that Israel disputes the claim.
NBC continues to rely on terror-linked sources. Reporting on the tragic Sept. 16 building collapse in Gaza that reportedly killed several individuals, reporters Nick Duggy and Chantal Da Silva implicitly blamed Israel for the incident, despite a clear Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denial, and relied on individuals and organizations with documented ties to the Hamas terrorist organization.
The piece’s poorly sourced accusations begin with its title:
“In a deadly building collapse, Gaza feels the lasting damage of Israeli attacks.”
Duffy and Da Silva then claim:
The enduring impact of Israel’s yearslong military assault hit the Gaza City apartment with a sudden jolt… Authorities in Gaza say the six-story Al-Saada building had previously been partially damaged by Israeli bombardment, which has left much of the territory in ruin since the yearslong military assault was launched in the wake of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
In an egregious omission, Duffy and Da Silva did not inform readers of the nearly 900-word article that the IDF unequivocally denied that the building was ever struck by Israeli forces. Responding to one commentator on X (formerly Twitter), the IDF stated, “Contrary to the claims, the IDF did not strike the building in question during the war.”
Contrary to the claims, the IDF did not strike the building in question during the war.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 16, 2026
The piece’s omission of the IDF’s account constitutes serious malpractice given the lack of definitive proof for why the building collapsed, which is the central subject of the article. The article leaves readers only with the word of Hamas authorities in Gaza, without clarifying that Israel disputes the claim.
The claim originates from the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza. NBC identified the force as “a civilian rescue agency within” Gaza, and cited its spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal. The organization operates as part of Hamas’ government in Gaza and falls under the Interior Ministry, which released a statement on the building collapse.
Bassal is a Hamas partisan. On June 8, 2025, the IDF published an announcement revealing that “following an analysis of documents found during operational activities in the Gaza Strip … Mahmoud Zabar Tafesh Bassal, is an active terrorist in the Hamas terrorist organization.”
It continues:
The terrorist, Bassal, has served as the spokesperson for the Civil Defense for an extended period of time and abuses his role by spreading false and unverified information to the international media, while falsely attributing war crimes to Israel and by presenting fabricated data. This information receives global media exposure and has caused a severe distortion of the reality on the ground.
An IDF video published on the same day as the statement added that Israel has “evidence that Mahmoud Bassal is registered as a military operative of the Zeitoun Battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,” Hamas’ armed wing.
NBC had cited Bassal in the past. In his Aug. 4 report entitled “In Gaza, a mass funeral for 112 members of 2 families, three years after deadly Israeli strike,” senior editor Henry Austin heavily quoted Mahmoud Bassal to describe a supposed Israeli strike in Gaza that was never claimed by the IDF. The emerging pattern is difficult to ignore: NBC has repeatedly relied on Bassal to present allegations against Israel without adequately disclosing that he is affiliated with Hamas.
Bassal’s popularity is not isolated to NBC. CNN cited him falsely blaming the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion in Gazaon an Israeli airstrike. On Oct. 18, 2023, he told the network that the blast was a “massacre,” adding:
We were here in the first moments after the bombing, and honestly, we found this place full of dead, burned bodies and bodies torn to pieces. Bodies without heads, heads over there, hands and legs over here. A massacre that we have never seen in our lives.
U.S. intelligence agencies later corroborated IDF assessments that a wayward Palestinian rocket caused the blast, assessing “with high confidence that Israel was not responsible for the explosion at the hospital and that Palestinian militants were responsible.”
Given the IDF’s documented rebuttal and the serious questions surrounding Bassal’s reliability as a source, NBC should have included the IDF’s statement in its report. At minimum, readers should have been told that Israel disputed the central claim that its forces had previously struck the building. Furthermore, Hamas’ history of ambush-style tactics in Gaza should give everyone a pause before confidently blaming IDF strikes for building collapses.
The terrorist organization has a well-documented history of booby-trapping civilian buildings in Gaza. A December 2023 Washington Post investigation quoted an IDF officer as stating that in one Gaza residence, he “saw inside a children’s room, among the blankets, a large explosive device,” adding that Hamas terrorists would regularly simulate the sound of children crying in order to lure IDF forces “into traps.”
A New York Times article published in July 2024 reported that Hamas had created an “elaborate system for marking houses” that contained weapons, tunnels or booby traps. Furthermore, the article described how:
Some buildings were marked with a particular symbol, some had red fabric hanging from windows, and others had plastic barrels or plastic bags outside — all of which told Hamas fighters something about what was concealed inside.
Details about what caused the Sept. 16 building collapse in Gaza remain sparse. But by omitting an IDF denial regarding the article’s central claim, NBC framed the collapse as another consequence of Israeli attacks while completely failing to give readers relevant context about Hamas’ documented use of booby traps and militarized residential buildings.
Nobody, including NBC, can claim to know with certainty what caused the building to collapse. But, with its omissions of the IDF’s statement and Hamas’ boobytrap tactic, the outlet falsely depicts the building’s collapse as a closed case, with Israel the definitive culprit.