Editors’ note on Gaza Hospital coverage
The Gazan Bombing of a Hospital: The New York Times Reports on the Outburst and the Status of Hamas
Five days after Hamas accused Israel of bombing a hospital and killing hundreds of people in Gaza City, the armed Palestinian group has yet to provide any evidence tying Israel to the strike.
The Gazan authorities changed their story about the blast as new evidence came out that differed from Hamas’s claim. Spokespeople have released death tolls varying from 500 to 833, before settling on 471.
Hamas denied requests from The Times to see any evidence of the munition it said had struck the hospital.
“The missile has dissolved like salt in the water,” said Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, in a phone interview. It has been destroyed. Nothing is left.”
The head of the Hamas media office said that they were not obligated to give details of the rockets that killed their people. You can research and confirm from the evidence we have.
On Oct. 17, The New York Times published news of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City, leading its coverage with claims by Hamas government officials that an Israeli airstrike was the cause and that hundreds of people were dead or injured. The report included a large headline at the top of The Times’s website.
The Times continued to update its coverage as more information became available, reporting the disputed claims of responsibility and noting that the death toll might be lower than initially reported. The headline and other text at the top of the website reflected the scope of the explosion, and the dispute over responsibility.
The Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation and been more explicit with what information could be verified, given the sensitive nature of the news during a widening conflict. Newsroom leaders continue to examine procedures around the biggest breaking news events — including for the use of the largest headlines in the digital report — to determine what additional safeguards may be warranted.
