The Washington Post has retracted a story claiming that the Israeli Military killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site in Gaza, the publication announced Tuesday.
An earlier version of the story claimed that 31 people, most of them civilians, were killed when Israeli troops opened fire near an aid site. The article cited the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry in making 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 outlet announced in an X post retracting the initial article. “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.”
The Post further acknowledged that it did not fully include Israel’s statement on the article when making the initial report.
“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,” the outlet continued.
“The early versions fell short of Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form.”
In addition to the formal retraction, the outlet deleted the initial post titled, “Israeli troops kill over 30 near U.S. aid site in Gaza, health officials say.”
The article generated controversy in the aftermath of Sunday’s terrorist incident in Boulder, Colorado, when a Kuwaiti immigrant tossed Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel demonstrators at an event demanding the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
“Yesterday the BBC (and most of MSM) published stories claiming Israel killed 31 Gazans standing in line for food. Today they correct it,” said Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire. “But 1000x more people will see the original and not the correction. It’s blood libel by design.”
