A Guardian article by Lorenzo Tondo, Seham Tantesh and Sufian Taha adheres to the outlet’s propagandistic formula of promoting incendiary accusations against Israel concerning Gaza’s healthcare that don’t withstand even minimal critical scrutiny.
The article (“‘I wish I had the power to ease his suffering’: Gaza’s cancer patients trapped by war and blockade“, Jan. 24) begins by describing the tragic plight of a young boy named Ismail Abu Naji who’s suffering from blood cancer, and includes the following accusation:
With even basic painkillers having become unattainable under the blockade, there is little else Ismail’s mother, Aya Mohammed Abu Hani, who is living in a tent in a school, can do but try to ease his pain, gently dabbing the wounds with a cloth soaked in salt water.
As we weren’t aware of any such restrictions on medicines entering Gaza, we checked with COGAT officials about that specific Guardian claim, and they confirmed the following:
There is no ban on the entrance of any kind of medication, including basic kinds of pain killers, or any medicine falsely claimed to be denied entry.
Here’s the second lie in the article:
In March 2025, Israel destroyed Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, the territory’s sole provider of oncology care.
Tellingly, the source cited is an Al Jazeera article.
Yet, if the journalists had done any research, they would have come across contemporaneous reports – from non-Qatari regime controlled outlets – contradicting that allegation, noting IDF statements that the hospital was being used by Hamas operatives, and, most importantly, that the building in question had not been used as an active hospital since the war began.
We complained to Guardian editors, asking that they correct both egregiously inaccurate accusations.
