WaPo Shames Family of Hamas Hostage for Failing To Speak of 'Israel's Assault on Gaza'

The Washington Post is under fire for sharing and then deleting a Friday X post that shamed an Israeli-American couple for failing to speak "about the ferocity of Israel's counterattack" on Hamas when raising the plight of their imprisoned son.

The now-deleted post, and portions of the published story, took aim at Ronen and Orna Neutra, whose son Omer is one of many hostages whom the Hamas terror group still holds in the Gaza Strip. The Neutras delivered a speech this week to the Republican National Convention, where they raised their son's plight and were met with widespread support from GOP politicians and the audience.

The Post publicized its article about the Neutras in a Friday morning post.

"Omer Neutra has been missing since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel," the post read. "When his parents speak publicly, they don't talk about Israel's assault on Gaza that has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, according to local officials. Experts have warned of looming famine."

The post was soon deleted and replaced with an apology after social media users expressed outrage. It is the latest in a string of public controversies for Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper, which has repeatedly come under fire for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, with critics accusing the publication of anti-Israel bias.

The Post's foreign desk in particular has faced intense criticism for its coverage of the war. Post reports routinely—and uncritically—cite casualty figures produced by Hamas's health ministry, which is known to inflate the number of those killed. At least six members of the foreign desk previously wrote for Al Jazeera, the Qatari-funded news outlet known to carry water for Hamas and other terror groups, the Washington Free Beacon reported in June, citing multiple reports that failed to accurately depict Hamas's crimes during the war.

The paper went on to apologize for its Friday X post.

"A previous post referencing the below story was unacceptable and did not meet our editorial standards, and The Post has deleted it," the paper acknowledged in a separate post. "The reporter of the story was not involved in crafting the tweet. We have taken the appropriate action regarding this incident."

A Post spokesman declined further comment when reached by the Free Beacon and did not respond to a subsequent inquiry asking for the identity of the X post's author.

While the initial post was removed, the article in question still raises similar questions about the Neutra family. The article was penned by reporter Joanna Slater, a national correspondent who has a master's from Columbia University, which has come under fire in recent months for a wave of anti-Semitic incidents tied to protests surrounding Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack.

"When the Neutras speak publicly, they don't talk about the ferocity of Israel's counterattack, which has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians and left nearly 90,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry," the report says. "Swaths of the territory have been pulverized and international experts have warned of looming famine."

"What's happening in Gaza is 'horrible,' Orna said, but Hamas could end it by releasing the hostages," the report continues. "Ronen echoed that sentiment: Hamas is 'not only holding hostage our son, they're also holding hostage the people of Gaza.'"

Social media users quickly expressed disgust over the Post's reporting.

"Almost no other media outlet deserves to go under than Wash Post," said Stephen L. Miller, a prominent political analyst who first drew attention to the paper's post. "A writer and their editors got together and decided to publish a story about a hostage taken by Hamas on October 7 and guilt their family over how many Palestinians have allegedly died."

Liora Rez, the executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, a watchdog group that monitors Jew-hatred, said the post is further evidence of the Post's bias against Israel.

"From defending those that promote Hamas to performing verbal gymnastics to deny the kidnappings of 10/7, the Washington Post has officially sunk to a new low," she said.

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