Earlier in the week, we complained to Financial Times editors over an article (“Food supplies in Gaza dwindling, as famine looms”, Aug. 16), written by their Cairo based correspondent Heba Saleh, which including the following:
Overall, humanitarian aid entering Gaza has more than halved since Israel seized the important Rafah crossing with Egypt which was closed in early May, according to the UN’s OCHA agency that is coordinating humanitarian operations.
This sentence elides the fact that it is Egypt who closed the Rafah Crossing after Israel took control of the Gaza side of that humanitarian passage in order stop the flow of weapons from that border to Hamas – and Cairo continues to refuse Israeli requests to re-open it.
This fact has been widely reported, including, as we reminded editors, at their own publication, in an article last month. Here’s the relevant paragraph of that July 12th piece:
The Egyptian side of the border is a closed military zone and, until the Israeli takeover, had been a major artery for the international aid effort to support Palestinian civilians. Egypt stopped the entry of aid in protest over the takeover…
Our complaint was upheld, and the sentence revised to the following:
The UN’s OCHA agency that is coordinating humanitarian operations said that overall, humanitarian aid entering Gaza has more than halved since Israel in May seized the important Rafah crossing with Egypt, which then closed it in protest.
Back in May, CAMERA prompted similar correction at Haaretz‘s English edition after a page-one print article, also published online, also erroneously stated that Israel closed the Rafah Crossing.
