ABC News retracted its claim that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dropped leaflets containing "harrowing messages" in Gaza. An editor’s note said the outlet couldn’t confirm the leaflets’ authenticity—but didn’t disclose that it also scrubbed language referring to the IDF as "occupation forces."
The original article, published Thursday morning, initially focused on the leaflets and listed four reporters on the byline. Only one, Jordana Miller, regularly covers Israel’s war with Hamas. She has also repeatedly and openly pushed a bias against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Miller and another journalist were stripped from the byline after ABC News updated the story.
"[T]he world map will not change if all the people of Gaza vanish," the pamphlets purportedly read, according to ABC News. They pushed Gazans to vacate "before the implementation of Trump’s forced plan—which will impose your forced displacement whether you like it or not."
"No one will feel for you, and no one will ask about you. You are left alone to face your inevitable fate," the leaflets purportedly added. "Neither US nor Europe cares about Gaza. The game is almost over, and only a little remains. Whoever wants to save themselves before it’s too late, we are here to stay until Judgment Day."
ABC News retracted that claim and re-centered the article on IDF’s latest movements in Gaza. Israel resumed attacks on Tuesday after Hamas refused to release its remaining hostages.
"Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article said that the IDF had dropped leaflets with disturbing messaging," a disclaimer at the top of the updated version read. "ABC News has not been able to confirm the authenticity of these leaflets. The IDF denies dropping these leaflets."
The original article, however, alleged that "occupation forces" had dropped the leaflets. That apparent reference to the IDF was also stripped from the updated version, without note.
The retraction comes days after ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic said the outlet’s mission was to provide "straightforward journalism." He delivered those comments while addressing ABC News’s 538 layoffs that were announced earlier this month.
Miller, meanwhile, has long showed a bias against Netanyahu. The Jerusalem-based reporter and former host of The Holy Land Uncovered accused Netanyahu in 2020 of having "authoritarian tendencies" and said he had launched attacks on "democracy itself." Later that year, she said former president Barack Obama’s claim that President Donald Trump would "tear our democracy down" could also apply to Netanyahu. She also praised Avigdor Liberman, a Netanyahu ally-turned-rival, saying he "took the bravest step early on" by cracking the prime minister’s "right-wing wall of support."
The other reporter removed from Thursday’s article, Tom Soufi Burridge, is France-based. He and London-based David Brennan, who remained on the byline, primarily cover the war in Ukraine.
The fourth reporter, Nadine El-Bawab, mainly reports on U.S. abortion laws and other breaking news. She served as a visiting researcher at the United Nations Office at Geneva in 2019.
ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.