The New York Times issued a strong statement Thursday in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told Fox News during a sit-down interview this week that the paper should be sued over its reporting on Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
“I’m actually looking at whether a country can sue The New York Times,” Netanyahu said in the interview, which aired Thursday. “And I’m looking into it right now because I think it’s such… it’s such clear defamation.”
Netanyahu was referring to a front-page Times report on the mass starvation of besieged Palestinians in Gaza. His gripe appears to be that the story didn’t originally note that one of the malnourished boys featured in the piece suffered from pre-existing health issues, which may have affected his physique.
Netanyahu told Fox News that the reported rise of antisemitism is tied directly to a “campaign of vilification that is done by so-called reputable news media” — and slammed the Times for updating the story with what he called a lacking editor’s note on July 29.
The editor’s note reads, “This article has been updated to include information about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza suffering from severe malnutrition. After publication of this article, The Times learned from his doctor that Mohammed also had pre-existing health problems.”
The Times rebuked Netanyahu, whose relentless bombing campaign in Gaza saw him accused last year of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, in a statement Thursday that also sternly defied his threat against a free American press.
“Children in Gaza are malnourished and starving, as New York Times reporters and others have documented,” read the statement. “Mr. Netanyahu is referring to an update we made to a story about how the food crisis is affecting the civilian population.
“After publication, we learned that a child shown in that story — in addition to being severely malnourished — also had pre-existing health conditions,” the Times continued. “That additional information gave readers a greater understanding of his situation.”
The paper then addressed Netanyahu’s consideration of taking legal action.
“Attempts to threaten independent media providing vital information and accountability to the public are unfortunately an increasingly common playbook,” the Times continued, in an apparent nod to President Donald Trump and his litigious assaults on the media.
The paper noted that journalists will “continue to report from Gaza for The Times, bravely, sensitively, and at personal risk, so that readers can see firsthand the consequences of the war,” which has killed or injured more than 50,000 children in Gaza since October 2023.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press
On Thursday, World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said an estimated 12,000 children in Gaza under 5 years of age are suffering from acute malnutrition. He said the number, identified in July, was “the highest monthly figure ever recorded.”
During that same Fox News interview in which he threatened to sue the Times, Netanyahu claimed that the shocking images of Gaza’s flattened landscape aren’t due to Israel’s airstrikes over the past 22 months — but the result of “booby traps” laid by terrorists.
He then confirmed his military plans to take control of the entire Palestinian territory.
