LA Times, IHT Follow Up on Gaza Baby?
In addition to the multiple media outlets we earlier noted which had wrongly blamed Israel for the death of 11-month-old Omar Masharawi, there are others. For instance, in print, on Nov. 16, 2012, Edmund Sanders wrote in the Los Angeles Times (“Israel and Gaza veering down familiar, bitter path”):
About the same time, bereaved young parents to the south in Gaza City buried their 11-month-old boy, who had just learned to say “Mama.”
The boy, Omar Misharawi, was killed Wednesday in an Israeli attack. The explosion tore through the family’s home, killing him and his pregnant aunt as the family dived for cover.
“He was just a few steps behind,” said his stunned mother, Ahlam Misharawi, 24. “He was right behind me.” (Emphasis added.)
Sanders also had this Nov. 15 online story, in which Israel is depicted as the culprit in Misharawi’s death.
The International Herald Tribune also carried reports blaming Israel for the child’s killing. Jodi Rudoren and Fares Akram reported Nov. 17:
Among the Palestinian fatalities were five children, two men over 55 and a pregnant 19-year-old, according to relatives and Gaza health officials.
“We heard an explosion that shook the house, and in a moment a shell hit the house,” said Um Jihad, the mother-in-law of the pregnant woman, Heba al-Mash’harawi, and grandmother of one of the babies, 11-month-old Omar.
And, the International Herald Tribune, like its parent paper, the New York Times, ran this Op-Ed by freelance journalist Lara Aburamadan blaming Israeli bombs for Omar’s death.
Robert Mackey, of the New York Times’ blog The Lede, also featured the Omar Masharawi story, relying on BBC’s claims that he was killed when an Israeli shell came through the roof. Now that the United Nations has determined that the boy was most likely killed by an errant Palestinian rocket, we call on these media outlets set the record straight.
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