Distorting the numbers: How the media have failed in reporting Gaza casualties
The research highlights a “big crisis in journalism,” emphasizing ethical failings in mainstream media, particularly in reporting military conflicts.
By GIL LEWINSKY Mourners pray during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on December 22, 2024. (photo credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters)
At anti-Israel protests worldwide and in many forums of public discourse, Israel is commonly accused of perpetrating a “genocide” in Gaza, allegedly killing over 45,000 people. On December 13, the start-up Fifty Global Research Group, publishing through the UK-based Henry Jackson Society, released bombshell findings showing that over a four-month period, 85% of analyzed publications failed to distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths. Almost all sources (98%) quoted figures from the Hamas-affiliated Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians, while only 4% used Israeli figures. Additionally, nearly 20% of sources cited Hamas figures without attribution, suggesting that the information was public knowledge and undisputed.
The story behind the study
Tatiana Glezer is the head researcher of Fifty Global Research Group, a research start-up established after the outbreak of the October 7 war. Originally a Moscow-based professional and Jewish community leader, her life changed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. She had closely followed Western media reports from CNN, BBC, and The New York Times suggesting a strong likelihood of invasion. “I respected them because they really made me feel that war was inevitable in Ukraine. It helped me prepare,” she said.
Three days after the invasion began, she left Russia. Following a months-long journey through Estonia and then Hungary, she immigrated to Israel with her children, pets, and a few suitcases to start a new life. Initially, the climate was hostile, as the new wave of Russian immigrants clashed with the established Russian-speaking community. This led her to create the Pumpkin Latte Facebook group, representing Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian immigrants who arrived after 2022. Read More...
At the outbreak of the October 7 war, she returned to the same news sources that had shaped her understanding of the Russian invasion. “I continued to read the same sources. I was shocked by the way Western media reported on the conflict. Every Israeli step was under a microscope, but the Israeli side was misrepresented. I was in shock, and it took me three months to decide what to do.”
She decided to take action. “I am a sociologist with a master’s degree from the University of Manchester. I noticed a systematic mistake in how Western media covered the conflict. So I decided to track all the major English-language media and analyze the quotations where total casualties were mentioned. I shared this idea with my colleagues and friends in the academic community.” Palestinians inspect damage at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, December 7, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Her initial analysis confirmed a clear bias in press coverage, prompting her to assemble like-minded individuals, such as a professor at Yale. Thus the Fifty Global Think Tank was born. During the initial phase, they collected 1,378 articles from eight media outlets, which included Reuters, AP, and ABC News in Australia, with the help of 50 volunteer professionals and experts from the Israel-based International Institute for Socio-Legal Studies. The findings were published by the Henry Jackson Society on December 13.
According to Glezer, the research highlights a “big crisis in journalism,” emphasizing ethical failings in mainstream media, particularly in reporting military conflicts. The study exposes how biases, shaped by editorial politics, reduce prominent outlets to the level of amateur bloggers. Key issues include the unchecked spread of Hamas propaganda and the failure to disclose its terrorist designation in Western media. “In the US and the UK, Hamas is acknowledged as a terrorist organization, yet articles made no mention of this at all,” Glezer said.
She hopes to continue studying this phenomenon, despite the challenges faced by a nascent think tank striving to be heard. She also aims to address the underlying issues in how media reports casualty figures: “Casualty numbers are a powerful weapon in the information war. There should be standards in journalistic ethics on how to report these numbers because they shape empathy and perception – they define so much.”
Israeli figures
Glezer also noted the difficulty of finding Israeli figures central to her research. She attributes this partly to ethical decisions by Israeli society, which refrains from publicizing such information out of respect for victims. This contrasts with Gaza-centric imagery, where victimization is amplified. “I asked people why Israel does not do more for public relations. I was told that we won’t persuade anyone, they’ll claim everything was fake, and we can’t show the visual images out of respect for the victims and their families.”
To verify her claim, The Jerusalem Report researched war-related casualty figures. Hamas-controlled death tolls, largely based on the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, are readily available with visual infographics on the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) website. The Hamas-based Gaza Health Ministry also provides daily updates through social media.
In contrast, Israeli figures were harder to find. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned 20,000 dead Gazan combatants in a speech on November 26. The IDF released an infographic in English on December 4 referring to the elimination of 19,000 terrorists. The last Hebrew statement releasing such figures dates back to September 25. Attempts to reach the IDF Spokesperson’s Office led to outdated figures provided in past press releases. Estimates of civilian casualties in Gaza were even more difficult to obtain.
Eylon Levy explains
Former government spokesman and current public relations personality Eylon Levy agrees that Israel should be more transparent with its casualty figures. He noted that the IDF once had a mini-site with OCHA-style infographics, which has since been taken off line. “Why? I don’t know—ask the IDF,” he quipped.
Levy, however, highlighted a more systemic problem: Not only journalists but many of Israel’s allies also lack proper access to Israeli casualty data. “We’re not fighting an information war. There’s a concerted campaign against us by UNRWA and other agencies constantly giving interviews blaming Israel, and we’re just not returning fire.”
He continued: “Who is supposed to be going on TV now and making the case for the State of Israel? Like what we did at the start of the war? It just doesn’t exist. Even if the number is out there, whose job will it be to pump it out all the time? That mechanism that was created out of nothing at the beginning of the war has collapsed and hasn’t been replaced. Whose job is it to send complaints to news editors about factual errors and Israeli figures? Right now, the Foreign Ministry is in consultations in anticipation of a strategic plan that they want to develop for the sake of hasbara [public diplomacy]. I hope they take it seriously.”
As such, the lack of Israeli figures in the press is not accidental. “We do not have the foot soldiers fighting this war right now,” he said.
Nevertheless, rather than painting a narrative of negligence, Levy prefers us to look at the broader picture that is a concerted effort worldwide to paint all Gazan casualties as civilians, despite the truth.
“Look at the recent statement by Tom Fletcher, the UN Relief chief. He put out a statement saying that there are 45,000 dead civilians, civilians…. The UN is claiming that everyone who has been killed in Gaza is a civilian. And….when you have the Irish prime minister put out a statement with Mahmoud Abbas expressing his sorrow about the 45,000 people that have been killed. Absolutely right to express his sorrow about the yet to be determined civilians that have been killed. But why express sorrow about the terrorists that have been killed trying to invade Israel and to take hostages?” he said.
The end goal is, in fact, not accidental but deliberate, according to Levy: “Since the start of the war, there is a massive push by the UN, international organizations, and NGOs to restore Hamas rule in Gaza….The NGOs, the UN, international organizations are applying massive pressure through an intense propaganda war to force Israel to return to the October 6 lines. This is the reality, this impression has been created that there are 45,000 dead civilians.
“Many international organizations are staffed by individuals with a radical anti-Israel and pro-Hamas agenda who believe that Hamas might, and I stress might, have gone too far on October 7 but are nevertheless supportive of it as a legitimate resistance organization,” he said. “There are many powerful people who have an interest in making it appear that Israel is targeting civilians.”
However, despite the overall narrative, Levy said that more needs to be done to release accurate Israeli figures.
“We have allies, we are fighting for humanity; and there are people who agree with us, and they need that information to be able to fight back,” he concluded.■
