The Israeli military entered the terrorist stronghold city of Jenin on Wednesday night to carry out an arrest raid aimed at apprehending Islamic Jihad militants who had been planning an imminent terror attack.
In a statement, the IDF revealed that it entered the West Bank city’s refugee camp and used explosives to flush out militants who were inside an apartment hideout being used by one of the group’s terror cells.
Israeli soldiers then came under heavy gunfire, with the local wing of Islamic Jihad confirming its members fired weapons and detonated bombs in the area.
Palestinians also reportedly shot down an IDF drone.
According to local reports, between nine and 13 Palestinians were killed during the clashes, including at least five terrorists.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
However, the version of events as reported by wire service Agence France Press (AFP) — one of the world’s biggest news agencies — bore absolutely no resemblance to the established facts.
Printed in the Guardian, the piece headlined, ‘Palestinians say nine killed in Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp,’ opens thus:
An Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed nine Palestinians including an elderly woman, Palestinian officials have said. They also accused the forces of using teargas inside a hospital’s children’s ward.
The health ministry said that in addition to the nine dead, multiple people were wounded.
In a separate statement, the Palestinian health minister, Mai al-Kaila, said: ‘Occupation forces stormed Jenin government hospital and intentionally fired teargas canisters at the paediatric department.’
She described the situation in the refugee camp as ‘critical’ and said Israeli forces were preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded.”
Images of #Palestinian terrorist Izz Edin Salahat who died during an Israeli counterterrorism operation when the IDF apprehended an #IslamicJihad squad.
The terror operatives were planning multiple major terror attacks.
Will the media include these details? pic.twitter.com/U5QvuceLRW
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 26, 2023
First, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest Israeli soldiers targeted a children’s ward in a hospital with teargas, nor that the IDF prevented ambulances from reaching individuals that had been wounded during the gunfight.
Second, at no point in the entire article is the reason for the IDF’s presence in Jenin mentioned. Indeed, Islamic Jihad’s name does not appear once, nor does the fact there was an imminent terror attack threat that prompted the raid in the first place.
Third, and most egregiously, the circumstances in which the deaths occurred are not given at all in the article. That is, the IDF was responding to heavy gunfire by militants who also set off explosives, which may have been responsible for some of the deaths.
Instead, AFP felt entitled to quote Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman ludicrously claiming the arrest raid was part of a pattern of Israel committing “massacres” in “full view of the world.”
The raid in Jenin was for the sole purpose of preventing a terror atrocity — why does AFP have such a hard time reporting this and other relevant facts?
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.
New! Skip the social scroll and get the latest from HonestReporting via Telegram.
Photo: Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
