New York Times uses errant Hamas rocket to claim Israel has ‘no concern for civilian life’

In reporting on the new “Palestinian” jihad violence, the establishment media has been behaving the way it always does: demonizing Israel and retailing “Palestinian” jihad propaganda as fact.

“The New York Times turns an errant Hamas rocket into three paragraphs of anti-Israel propaganda,” Elder of Ziyon, May 11, 2021:

Yesterday, a missile hit the house of the Masri family in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killing at least seven including three children.

Israeli TV reported that the IDF confirmed that the missile was an errant Hamas rocket that fell short in Gaza.

USA Today reported:

In Gaza, health officials reported a total of 20 deaths, including nine children.

It did not provide a breakdown, but at least seven members of a family, including three children, were killed in a blast in the norther town of Beit Hanoun. It was not immediately clear if the blast was caused by an airstrike or errant rocket.

Ashraf al-Masri, a member of the family, said there was an explosion outside the house.

“We don’t know where it came from,” he said. “We are trying to get the children for burial but the situation is difficult in Beit Hanoun and we are afraid to leave our houses.”

(The article has been updated and no longer has this section.)

Ashraf has no idea if his family was killed by Israel or Hamas. He just wants to bury them.

But something happened between that interview and when he spoke to the New York Times later. Now he is convinced it was an Israeli missile, and Israel is solely responsible for all suffering:

But as the conflict expanded and the airstrikes began, it quickly became deadly.

In Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, the Masri family was grieving for two young boys who were killed on Monday evening. Ibrahim, 11, and Marwan, 7, had been playing outside their home when a missile struck, according to their uncle, Bashir al-Masri, 25.

For Mr. Masri, the attack showed that Israel had no concern for civilian life.

“They target buildings with children, they target ambulances, they target schools,” he said by telephone. “And all the world, beginning with America, says that people in Gaza are terrorists. But we are not terrorists. We just want to live in peace.”

He also called on Israel to end a blockade on Gaza that has placed heavy restrictions on goods and materials, lest they be used to make weaponry. The blockade, coupled with similar restrictions by Egypt, has crippled Gaza’s economy and led to high unemployment.

“God knows how we live in Gaza — and the number one reason is the Israeli siege,” said Mr. Masri, who is one of the roughly 50 percent of Gazans without work. “They want to kill us. But they cannot.”

Suddenly, Ashraf turned from a grieving relative with no idea how his family was killed into a Hamas spokesperson repeating anti-Israel talking points word for word .

It appears that after the USA Today story where the source of the rocket was unclear, someone from Hamas got hold of Mr. Masri and told him that he is not to give the impression that anyone but Israel can be at fault….

If the New York Times was truly interested in reporting the truth, they would have mentioned the IDF denial of shooting that rocket, and that many Gaza rockets have killed Gaza kids over the years, and that Mr. Masri had no idea where the missile came from, or that he acted very differently a few hours earlier. Instead they gave him a platform to propagandize on behalf of those who killed his family.