The Washington Post published a report this week alleging the Israel Defense Forces were responsible for the tragic death of a Palestinian infant. The way the Post told the story, the baby suffocated to death after IDF soldiers deployed tear gas during violent clashes with Palestinian citizens.

The only problem with this story is that there are multiple, conflicting accounts. It’s by no means clear that the infant died as a direct result of IDF actions. Worse still, the Post seems to have accepted but not admitted this, as the paper scrubbed its report to remove the initial claim that Israeli forces are directly responsible for the child's death.

It's pretty cowardly stuff. And a lot of good a stealth edit is going to do, considering the original Post story went out Tuesday morning with the death-by-tear-gas narrative built right into the title.

The report's initial headline read, “Toll for Gaza protests rises to 59 as baby dies from tear gas, with more protests expected.”

That headline stayed up on the Post’s website for roughly six hours before editors changed it to the current, “Gaza buries its dead as death toll from protests at fence with Israel rises to at least 60.”

The story also opened with this line, “Ahead of another day of protests, the death toll for those killed by Israeli forces at the Gaza boundary fence in climbed to 59 on Tuesday after an infant died overnight from tear gas inhalation, according to local health officials.” (Emphasis added.)

It also included this line, “More than 2,700 people were injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, including 1,359 from live ammunition. The dead included at least seven children under the age of 18, among them a 15-year-old girl, the ministry said. The baby was eight months old and died after inhaling tear gas at the main protest area east of Gaza City, it added.”

All mentions of the baby have since been amended. The only thing that remains is the story is the following passage:



The Health Ministry also reported that a baby died after inhaling tear gas at the main protest area in Gaza. An unidentified doctor told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the baby, Layla Ghaben, had a preexisting medical condition and that he did not think her death was caused by tear gas.



There is no editor’s note. There is no update clarifying that the Post can't substantiate its original claim. There’s only shrugging and less robust speculation than in the original.

The way the story reads now, it seems like a child’s tragic death may or may not be loosely related to the equally tragic violence in Gaza. But that’s a long way off from what the Post originally reported.

The fact that there’s no formal correction or apology only makes the paper's original misstep even worse.

(h/t Alex Griswold)