Huckabee Demands NYT, CNN, AP Retract Fake Stories on Gaza Aid Deaths

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee demanded Monday that the New York Times, CNN, and the Associated Press, among others, retract false reporting that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinian civilians at an American aid site in Gaza.

Huckabee linked the fake news published by these outlets directly to the antisemitic terror attack Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, where an illegal alien shouting pro-Palestinian slogans set Jewish protesters on fire.

As Breitbart News reported, Hamas had claimed falsely that Israeli soldiers had killed dozens of Palestinian civilians near an aid site run by the Trump administration-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Hamas, which regularly lies about casualty figures through its “Gaza health ministry,” has a particularly strong incentive to discredit the GHF, which gives aid directly to Palestinians, and without charging them.

Until now, the United Nations has controlled aid deliveries in Gaza — which has, in turn, allowed Hamas to steal and siphon off the aid, selling it to Palestinian civilians for profit and cementing its political control.

When Hamas made its sensational claim of mass murder on Sunday, mainstream media outlets in the West — which operate, presumably, without fear of censorship — simply repeated it without waiting for verification.

They later updated their headlines to retreat from their mistake without admitting what they had done.

CNN, for example, originally ran the headline: “At least 26 Palestinians killed after Israeli forces open fire near Gaza aid distribution center, health workers say.” It was later changed to: “Dozens shot dead and injured near Gaza aid hub, health ministry and doctors say.” The BBC initially reported: “31 dead after Israeli tanks open fire near Gaza aid centre, Hamas health ministry says.” That headline, too, was later changed to: “Israel denies firing at civilians after Hamas-run ministry says 31 killed in Gaza aid centre attack.”

In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Israel, Ambassador Huckabee demanded formal retractions:

Reckless and irresponsible reporting by major U.S. news outlets are contributing to the antisemitic climate that has resulted in the murder of two young people at an Israeli Embassy event in Washington last month and the attempted murder and terror attack on a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado on Sunday.

Without verification of any source other than Hamas and its collaborators, the New York Times, CNN, and Associated Press reported that a number of people seeking to receive humanitarian food boxes from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund were shot or killed by the Israeli Defense Forces.  These reports were FALSE.  Drone video and first-hand accounts clearly showed that there were no injuries, no fatalities, no shooting, no chaos.  It is Hamas that continues to terrorize and intimidate those who seek food aid.  The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States.  Media sources who willingly parrot these libelous allegations should recant their fake news stories, apologize, and pledge to practice actual reporting of fact instead of engaging in dangerous propaganda that assists the terror group Hamas as they continue to hold innocent hostages for over 600 days after butchering over 1,200 people on October 7th.

The efforts of GHF have resulted in over 5 million meals to civilians without incident.  For the New York Times, AP, and CNN to be part of a Hamas-fed false narrative is reprehensible.  It represents more than mere sloppy journalism.  It’s feeding and inciting violence against innocent people in the United States.

We are demanding an immediate retraction of the lies and are appealing to all media sources to act with objective professionalism to cover actual events instead of being a partner of terrorism by blindly following Hamas news releases.

A source at GHF told Breitbart News on Sunday that, contrary to the fake news reports, the distribution of aid had been peaceful. Photos emerged Monday of grateful Palestinians smiling at GHF aid workers at the sites.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.