The New York Times published a story detailing Hamas’ attack on Israel as its members killed women and children, abducted civilians and bombed communities — but the outlet can’t seem to decide whether to call Hamas militants “terrorists” or “gunmen.”
Social media sleuths pointed out that when the Times first published its piece on Tuesday — titled “Hamas Leaves Trail of Terror in Israel” — the subheading denounced “the massacre of civilians by Hamas terrorists.”
By Tuesday evening, “terrorists” had been changed to “gunmen,” according to website archival platform archive.today.
At that point, the switch-up had already garnered a flurry of fierce criticism on social media — namely X, formerly Twitter — with users condemning the Times as “antisemitic.”
Former Daily Caller journalist Greg Price called the Times out for the edit late Tuesday, when he shared screenshots of the two stories with two different descriptions of Hamas below the headline.
“Holy sh-t you can’t make this up,” he wrote in a tweet that’s since been viewed over 2.3 million times.
Outraged users responded: “The @nytimes is trash,” and, “If you don’t cancel your NYT subscription now, when?”
Price likened calling Hamas members “gunmen” to saying: “Untold pain suffering was caused by the amateur pilots on 9/11.”
And another user equated the Times’ move to the Washington Post’s obituary for ISIS leader Abu Bark al-Baghdadi, in which it called the longtime terrorist leader an “austere religious scholar.”
“These vibes,” the user wrote with a screenshot of the ill-fated article.
Following the firestorm of criticism, the Times appeared to have edited the text again on Wednesday — this time back to calling Hamas “terrorists.”
However, the body of the article still refers to members of the Gaza-based organization as “gunmen,” noting that the group hit “killed more than 1,000 people [in Israel], including women and children, and abducted an estimated 150 more people. “
Representatives for the Times did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Liberal media rival the Washington Post is also seemingly avoiding calling Hamas “terrorists.”
WaPo’s live feed of the Israel-Gaza war only refers to Hamas as “militants,” with no mention of the word “terrorist” on the feed’s landing page.
The Post has sought comment from the WaPo.
The US has designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.
The federal center — which taps specialists from federal agencies including the CIA, FBI, Department of Defense and Homeland Security — cited “violent resistance against Israel,” suicide bombings and rocket attacks as reason for the terrorist distinction.
The UK has also proscribed Hamas as a terrorist organization, though British broadcaster the BBC has refused to use the term, instead calling Hamas members “militants.”
Worst attack on Israel in 50 years: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip over three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years.
Over 1,400 Israelis are dead, more than 3,500 are wounded and at least 100 were taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Hamas terrorists were seen taking female hostages and parading them down the street in horrifying videos.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials report at least 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and more than 9,700 injured.
The decision has even been condemned by the British government, which told the outlet that it should refer to Hamas as “terrorists” even without attribution.
“We always take our use of language very seriously. Anyone watching or listening to our coverage will hear the word ‘terrorist’ used many times – we attribute it to those who are using it, for example, the UK Government,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement to The Post.
“This is an approach that has been used for decades, and is in line with that of other broadcasters. The BBC is an editorially independent broadcaster whose job is to explain precisely what is happening ‘on the ground’ so our audiences can make their own judgement.”
Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a group that governs Gaza, a 25-mile-long strip of land along the Mediterranean with a population of more than 2 million people, and the West Bank, a larger area which has both Palestinian and Israeli settlements but is under Israeli military occupation.
The group has repeatedly used terrorist tactics against the Israelis, including mass murder, as the group’s leadership vowed the erasure of the Jewish state and the creation of an Islamic state in its place.
The reason given by Hamas for launching the action was “in defense of the Aqsa Mosque,” referring to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which it claims Israel had allowed Jewish groups to “desecrate” by praying at the site.
It has also cited the longstanding Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing since 2007, and Israeli violence against Palestinians as reasons for the terror attack.
