Update: An earlier version of this post attributed the headline to the AFP. While the report reference below is from the AFP, it looks like Pakistan’s Daily Times changed the headine, instead of running the AFP one.
I apologize for blaming AFP this time.
The Daily Times reports how 8-month-old palestinian baby girl Layla al-Ghandour, who in many ways become the face of Israel’s supposed crimes in handling the Gaza “march of return” riots, was taken off the list of “martyrs,” since she may have had a pre-existing medical condition and not been killed by Israeli actions at all.
Yet that does not stop the Daily Times from still blaming Israel for her death, with this inaccurate headline:
Even though the reports spells it out
A baby who died near the Gaza border was not included in a Gaza health ministry list of Palestinians killed by the Israel army, after a dispute over how she died.
The ministry and family members originally said 8-month-old Leila al-Ghandour had died after inhaling tear gas along the border during a day of clashes in which at least 61 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire.
The Israeli army disputed the claim, calling it “fake news” by Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the coastal enclave.
The army claimed she had a pre-existing medical condition, citing an unnamed doctor with access to her file.
A full list of those the ministry called “martyrs,” published this week for the first time, did not include Ghandour.
The health ministry has said a full review of her death was underway.
Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the ministry, said her name would not be included until the review was completed, without giving a time frame.
“Her name was not included in earlier lists either,” Qudra told AFP, though no exhaustive list had previously been made public.
“The investigation will determine (whether she had a pre-existing condition) and if the inhaled gas contributed to her death.”
Two competing claims: death due to a pre-existing condition vs death due to tear gas inhalation, yet the Daily Times goes with alternative two, the one that blames Israel.
Why am I not surprised?
