The Power of Rumors: AP’s ‘Convent Is Bulldozed’ Headline

By: Tamar Sternthal May 4, 2026

The Associated Press aims to position itself as “the world’s most trusted news organization” and “the provider of accurate, unbiased, fact-based reporting to the world.” But this week, with a headline stating as fact that Israeli troops bulldozed a convent in Lebanon, the news agency’s trustworthiness is reduced to rubble. 

With its May 2 headline, “Israeli airstrikes kill 7 in southern Lebanon as a Catholic convent is bulldozed,” AP prioritized the power of rumors over the news agency’s stated commitment to “the power of facts.” Indeed, countless secondary media outlets including The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, The Los Angeles Times and scores more reproduced AP’s rumor-based reporting about the convent in Yaroun, Lebanon, attesting to the metastasizing power of rumors.

The very same day as AP’s story about the “bulldozed” convent, the Israeli military released images of what it said is the same and very much still standing convent, disputing the claim that “a Catholic convent is bulldozed.”

As Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani stated about the convent located in Yaroun, Lebanon:
This religious structure was not damaged, as shown in these photos taken this morning.
A review indicates that during efforts to dismantle terror infrastructure, damage was caused to a residential structure within a religious compound, which wasn’t indicated to be a religious site. Once an additional structure in the compound was identified as a religious site, troops acted immediately to prevent further damage. [Emphasis added.]
Similarly, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported: “The site is intact and safe.”
While AP’s headline stated as fact “a Catholic convent is bulldozed,” the accompanying article was somewhat more cautious on both the veracity of the information and the extent of reported damage. Thus, in his opening sentence, AP correspondent Bassem Mroue attributed the claim to unnamed “officials” and also cited partial destruction, stating: ” … the Israeli military demolished parts of a Catholic convent in a border village, officials said.”
Mroue continued, again referring to partial destruction (as opposed to the headline which suggests total destruction), but this time dropping the attribution, and adopting the (partial) destruction claim as fact:
In the border village of Yaroun, Israel’s military used bulldozers to destroy parts of a Catholic convent that had been empty as a result of the latest fighting.
“What we heard is that it was destroyed with bulldozers,” said Gladys Sabbagh, the superior general of the Basilian Salvatorian Sisters. Sabbagh told the Associated Press that the convent included a school that had been closed since the Israel-Hezbollah war, as well as a clinic that was recently moved to the nearby village of Rmeich.
She described the convent as a small compound housing just two nuns, who left because of the war. Sabbagh did not have further details as Yaroun’s residents have been displaced. [Emphasis added.]
It’s entirely unclear whether AP’s “convent is bulldozed” headline is based on anything more than the unconfirmed rumors relayed by Gladys Sabbagh, the church official quoted in the story, who was not on the site and did not see it for herself.
Moreover, AP’s repackaging of a disputed rumor as fact cannot be attributed to ignorance of the IDF’s emphatic denial. Under a subheading stating “Catholic Church disputed Israeli military’s version,” Mroue reported:
The Israeli military issued a statement saying that as the army was destroying Hezbollah infrastructure in Yaroun, a house that had no religious signs was damaged. It added that as soon as the military knew that it was linked to a church, soldiers “prevented any further damage from being done.”
The military added that that Hezbollah used the compound in the past to fire rockets toward Israel on several occasions. It added that the military does not strike religious institutions intentionally.
Although the IDF disputed the bulldozed convent claim, and produced photographs to support its assertion, the AP nevertheless charged ahead with a headline which treated an unverified accusation (at best) or, worse, a downright false rumor, as fact.
CAMERA calls on AP to restore its demolished credibility by either a) producing direct substantiation that the convent was bulldozed and that the IDF published false or old images of the site, or images of a different site, or b) retracting its false, rumor-based headline. Stay tuned for updates.
For the Spanish version of this article, please see CAMERA Español.

May 6 Update: Times of Israel Corrects Inaccurate Reporting on IDF's Denial

CAMERA's Israel office has prompted correction of a Times of Israel headline and article which incorrectly reported that the Israeli military admitted that it damaged the convent. An erroneous May 2 headline originally stated, "IDF admits damaging Catholic convent in southern Lebanon, denies site demolished." In fact, as reported above, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani made clear that the convent itself was not damaged, stating: This religious structure was not damaged, as shown in these photos taken this morning. … damage was caused to a residential structure within a religious compound, which wasn't indicated to be a religious site." [Emphasis added.] Following CAMERA's communication with editors, Times of Israel commendably corrected the headline to state: "IDF denies demolishing Catholic convent in southern Lebanon." In addition, the updated subheadline correctly adds: "Forces cause some damage to ‘residential structure’ at the religious compound; army says Hezbollah fired rockets from compound ‘multiple times’ during war." [Emphases added.]

In addition, editors also commendably fixed a passage in the accompanying article which had originally inaccurately reported:

The Israeli military on Saturday acknowledged it caused some damage to a Catholic convent in southern Lebanon while working to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, but denied it “demolished” the site with bulldozers.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, during operations in the border village of Yaroun, forces caused damage to a structure that “had no external signs indicating it was a religious building.”

The amended opening paragraph now rightly reports:

The Israeli military on Saturday acknowledged it caused some damage to a “residential structure” at a Catholic convent compound in southern Lebanon while working to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, but denied claims that it “demolished” the site with bulldozers.

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