New report illustrates how Hamas' inflated casualty figures leads to 'skewed narrative' of Gaza War

A report from the UK’s Henry Jackson Society (HJS) has found that death tolls published by Hamas-run organizations in Gaza over the past 14 months have been inflated, leading to incorrect reporting by major news channels.

‘Questionable Counting’ is the title of the 36-page independent report, which concludes that around 17,000 terrorists have been killed during the Hamas-launched war, but that the media continually uses a figure of over 40,000 deaths, often implying civilians.

“This report raises serious concerns that the Gaza MoH [Ministry of Health] figures have been overstated,” writes Andrew Fox, the report’s author. “The data behind their figures contains natural deaths, deaths from before this conflict began and deaths of those killed by Hamas itself; it contains no mention of Hamas combatant fatalities; and it overstates the number of women and children killed.”

The HJS report gave examples of deliberate errors in the Hamas calculations, such as a 22-year-old listed as a four-year-old and a 31-year-old being listed as a baby. The data also reveals many instances of male deaths being listed by Hamas under false female identities.

World media coverage of the figures has also been analyzed. During the 4-month period from February to May of this year, 84% of certain key U.S., UK and Australian media outlets “failed to make the critical distinction,” between civilian and combatant deaths, Fox stated.

“The omission creates a skewed narrative portraying all casualties as civilian, shaping public opinion and international policy based on incomplete or manipulated data.”

According to the report, only 5% of the surveyed media organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN and the BBC, cited numbers released by the Israeli authorities, compared to 98% citing Hamas figures.

A worrying 19% of the 1,378 articles analyzed over four months treated the Hamas-controlled figures as fact, without attributing them to anyone.

The HJS report follows several academic reports revealing evidence of fabrication and manipulation of data, specific data analysis into the UK’s public service broadcaster, the Asserson Report, which cited 1,553 breaches of the BBC’s own impartiality guidelines, and a report into the BBC’s coverage since Oct. 7, 2023, edited by a former director at the corporation. 

Inaccurate and biased reporting has led to the biggest public relations battle that Israel has had to fight to date, including charges of genocide against Palestinians, arrest warrants issued against Israeli leaders, and the rise of antisemitic hate crimes worldwide. 

Recent examples of anti-Israel demonstrations in the UK have been the shocking display of pro-Hamas speakers and students at the Oxford Union, followed by more vitriol leveled at Jewish people and Israel supporters under the guise of a charity fundraiser.

At a concert in south London on Friday, singers including Paul Weller and Paloma Faith used the platform to accuse the Jewish state of committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza. 

Advertised as a fundraising event for Medical Aid for Palestinians and Gaza Forever, the Daily Telegraph reported that audience members said the evening became a “political rally” filled with “one-sided propaganda,” as the crowd was led in chants of “Free, free Palestine.”

One of the nation’s broadsheet newspapers has also been recently accused by an employee of hosting antisemitic attitudes. Jewish food critic and journalist, Jay Rayner, said he was unable to stay at the company due to racism.

Speaking to Paul Calvert, Adam Levick co-editor at CAMERA UK, explained that the Guardian newspaper began predicting Israel’s aggressive and disproportionate response to the Hamas massacre, within just two weeks of the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion and attack on Israel last year, and even before the IDF’s ground invasion into Gaza.

After 10 months of the Hamas-Israel conflict, CAMERA had secured 100 corrections from the BBC Arabic channel, Levick said, a channel that has been exposed as having employed Hamas supporters. He said that CAMERA’s work in holding the BBC accountable to its own standards is particularly important, given the corporation’s global reach.

“The manipulation of events and facts on the ground throughout this conflict confirms that a terrorist organisation like Hamas will distort the truth to further their own aims,” the UK’s opposition (shadow) foreign secretary, Priti Patel, told the Daily Telegraph.

“The media must be alert to this and report information and events taking place in a responsible and balanced way.”

“It might have been justified to avoid coverage of any of the figures on the ground [in] that they are unreliable,” CEO of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner, wrote in August, under ‘Recommendations for media organizations.’”

“However,” he continued, “since the Gaza Ministries’ figures of the totals allegedly killed have been repeatedly stated in media coverage, it is unbalanced and misleading not to state with similar regularity the figures provided by the IDF of the Palestinian combatants killed.” 

“This unbalanced and misleading media coverage is likely to be a major cause of rising antisemitism,” he added.

To listen to Calvert’s latest interview with Adam Levick, click here.