Washington Post apologizes over front page showing Israeli girl’s funeral alongside misleading headline
The Washington Post apologized Tuesday over its front page Monday showing mourners of an 11-year-old killed in a Hezbollah rocket strike — alongside a head-scratching headline about Israeli airstrikes.
The headline, “Israel hits its targets in Lebanon,” directly underneath the photo of heartbroken loved ones draped over the casket of Alma Ayman Fakhr al-Din, 11, “did not provide adequate context,” the paper admitted in an editor’s note Tuesday.
“The headlines should have noted that the Israeli strikes were a response to a rocket strike from Lebanon that killed 12 teenagers and children in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights,” it said.
“The photo depicted mourning for one of those victims, as the caption noted.”
Alma and 11 other youngsters were killed in the Hezbollah strike on a soccer field on Saturday.
Another 40 people were injured in the strike, which was the deadliest against Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.
The daily broadsheet was quickly slammed online over its gaffe, including by the Israel Defense Forces, which posted on X, “You can see the grieving family members burying children murdered by Hezbollah in the Madjal Shams massacre. If by chance you understood anything else from their headline, you might not be the problem.”
“That’s an image of a funeral of a girl KILLED IN ISRAEL BY A HEZBOLLAH ROCKET FROM LEBANON, so why is the Washington Post headline backwards?” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy added on X alongside a screenshot of the front page.
Pro-Israel Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) also questioned the paper’s decision to frame Israel as the “aggressor” underneath an image of a child killed by the terror group.
One online commenter accused the Jeff Bezos-owned paper of being “a propaganda arm of Hamas since October.”
The horrific attack on the Golan Heights took place as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was concluding his visit to Washington, DC.
Netanyahu raced home on an earlier flight in order to address the tragedy – and vowed that Israel “will not let this pass in silence.”
Despite the prime minister’s promise of retaliation, several families of the young victims refused to meet with him, Haaretz reported.
Local officials in Majdal Shams also supposedly requested that government officials not attend the children’s funerals – while those who did attend were jeered at by the mourners.
The Israeli military is investigating why the country’s renowned Iron Dome missile defense system did not intercept the rocket, which was identified as an Iranian-made Falaq with a 117-pound warhead.
The military said the rocket’s flight time – just about six miles from the Lebanese town of Chebaa to in the Golan Heights – may have been too brief for the defense system to launch and interceptor missile.
Hezbollah immediately denied the attack.
It was not clear what the group’s motivations may have been for targeting the Druze community in the Golan Heights, many of whom see themselves as citizens of Syria.
Druze leaders in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel criticized what they viewed as the Israeli government’s attempt to drive a wedge between the close-knit community in the aftermath of the attack.
“For sure, it was not targeting Majdal Shams. There are many Israeli military bases around the town. I expect this threat was heading their way,” said Nabeeh Abu Saleh, a paramedic from the town who rushed to the scene Saturday.
One of Abu Saleh’s nephews was killed in the attack, and another was injured, he said. At the scene, some body parts were flung over 300 feet from the point of impact.
“We buried our children. We don’t want retaliation. We have families in Lebanon, in Syria, and we have brothers here in Israel,” he insisted.
With Post wires
