WaPo Retracts Unverified Hamas Smear Of Israel

The Washington Post admitted to significant errors in its reporting on Israel and Gaza on Tuesday, deleting a social media post and correcting an article that unfairly maligned Israel’s military.

The newspaper admitted to its fault in another social media post explaining that an article from Sunday fell short of the Post’s “fairness standards.” The reporting covered a disputed incident outside a Gaza aid center in which the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry accused Israel of gunning down civilians. The Israel Defense Forces have denied the claim.

“The article failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post,” the correction says. “The article and headline were updated on Sunday evening making it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible for the shootings and that there was a dispute over that question.”

“While statements from Israel that it was unaware of injuries and that an initial inquiry indicated its soldiers didn’t fire at civilians near the site were included in all versions, The Post didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings,” it continued. “The early versions fell short of Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form.”

Correction: We’ve deleted the post below because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.

The background: Early versions of the article on Sunday stated that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site in Gaza, with the… pic.twitter.com/KseRXgJn6A

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 3, 2025

The disputed incident took place early Sunday morning. Gaza Health Ministry officials and some Palestinian bystanders accused Israeli soldiers of firing into an early morning crowd that was traveling to a Gaza aid center. The health ministry said that at least 31 people were killed and another 170 were wounded.

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The Israeli military and the aid organization that operates the center, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, have denied the claims. The Israeli military said that Israeli soldiers at one point fired warning shots into the air “to prevent several suspects from approaching” them overnight. The military said that there was “no connection between this incident and the false claims made against the IDF.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has denied that any such incident took place outside the aid center. The foundation has released video that reportedly showed an uneventful Sunday morning except for one incident of tracer fire in the distance.

“There was no gunfire in the center and also not in the surrounding area,” the foundation said in a statement. “All aid was distributed today without incident. We have heard that these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas. They are untrue and fabricated.”