(Screenshot)

Experts debunk key evidence in the essay, slamming NY Times for failure to fact-check claims, allowing unverified accusations to spread.

By Channa Rifkin, Honest Reporting

The New York Times opinion essay “65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza” from October 9 blew up over the weekend, as weapons and forensic ballistic experts debunked and questioned X-ray images featured in the piece claiming to be 5.56 caliber bullets inside the skulls of Gazan children.

The actual impact of a 5.56 caliber bullet was nowhere close to what these images claimed to be. But this thread on X (formerly Twitter) gathers various inputs across the platform. With no exit wounds present, skull fractures or change in the shape of the bullets, the authenticity of these X-rays was concluded as being highly problematic.

This suggests, in short, that the NY Times did not verify the information in the piece adequately before it was published – thereby allowing lies to be platformed to the public. Here are two extensive examinations of the X-ray images.

And in more depth, the forensic medical evidence is provided here:

As HonestReporting previously stated in its critique of the piece on Friday, these testimonies are not proof that these casualties are a result of IDF fire. Indeed, Hamas is also known to shoot their own people.

But it’s the response of the article’s author, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, that really puts a nail in the coffin of this piece’s legitimacy.

To deny that Hamas use civilians as human shields and claim Israel does, as well as denying that “maximizing civilian deaths” is in Hamas’ interests is not only delusional, it is an intentional, blatant lie. There are countries, journalists and international bodies, the UN included, which have confirmed the use of human shields. Hamas leaders, like Yahya Sinwar, have even been outspoken on the role innocent civilians play in their strategy to defeat Israel.

PAMA’s Roots

But more than that, the organization that sent these doctors into Gaza as volunteers, the Palestinian American Medical Association (PAMA), has a history entangled with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a U.S. organization that has been tied to terrorist groups.

It appears that PAMA is no stranger to outright disinformation, and the proof is in the pudding for this NY Times piece as well.

Lesson for The New York Times? Consider your sources, and no mission that seems righteous should come at the expense of your publication’s integrity. Just because a claim fits your ideological worldview on Israel, it doesn’t remove the obligation to fact-check and do journalistic due diligence.