Last week, we posted about a Daily Mail article that promoted the accusation that the IDF shot a young Palestinian girl which was notable in that we couldn’t find any other report about the incident elsewhere in the media.
The dearth of additional media coverage, we noted, was likely due to the fact that the piece was based entirely on one post shared on X by Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza.
As you can see, Whittall didn’t explicitly blame the IDF for the girl’s injury – though that was the take-away. The OCHA head didn’t appear to offer any additional evidence.
Here are the opening paragraphs, which, as you can see, includes no original reporting – relying entirely on the one social media post:
A 10-year-old Palestinian girl has allegedly been shot in the chest by IDF forces close to the United Nations office in Gaza.
The reported shooting comes after four aid workers were killed in Israeli strikes in the terrority on Saturday.
A shocking picture appears to show the child on her back on the ground surrounded by UN workers in blue vests after it was claimed she was shot in the chest while crossing an Israeli checkpoint in the south of Gaza.
The post said that workers from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stabilised the girl before they took her to a hospital.
The article then pivots to another topic, meaning that the opening four paragraphs is all there is. Further, and most crucially, there’s no indication that the reporters reached out to the IDF for a comment, which is standard practice even at most egregiously anti-Israel publications, such as the Guardian.
So, we contacted the IDF Spokesperson Unit ourselves, and asked for a comment on the Daily Mail story. After looking into the allegations, they replied:
We contacted the Daily Mail, asking that the article be amended to include the IDF’s denial, and, earlier today, we received a reply from editors informing us that our complaint was upheld, and their reply:
In response to the incident, an IDF spokesperson said: ‘No shots were fired at the girl, and no signs were found indicating that she was injured as a result of an IDF action.
‘The IDF operates according to international law and upholds its regulations even during combat in the Gaza Strip.’
However, at the time of this post, the main, unevidenced allegation, that the IDF shot a young girl, has not been removed.
h/t Rolene
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