The Telegraph falsely claimed that Hamas recently held its “first ever” public weapons exhibition in Gaza. The piece (“Hamas invites children to take selfies with guns and RPGs”, July 2), by Abbie Cheeseman, included the following strap line:
Here’s the opening sentence:
It’s to the outlet’s credit that they reported on the antisemitic extremist group’s attempt to inculcate children into their culture of violence. However, this is most certainly not the first instance of such a public display of their instruments of terror – a fact our colleague Tamar Sternthal reminded us of in a correction she prompted today at Agence France Presse (AFP).
Responding to AFP’s claim that “The armed wing of Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas has put its weapons on public display for the first time…”, Sternthal informed editors that AFP itself covered previous Hamas weapons displays on numerous occasions.
On a separate issue, the Telegraph article also included the false claim that the Iranian proxy group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) just “branched out and started operations in the West Bank”. In fact, PIJ’s presence in that territory dates back to the 1980s.
We’ve complained to Telegraph editors about both errors.
