The Media Accountability Project  

This pattern also reflects a well-documented Israeli strategy of manufacturing doubt to evade accountability for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, crimes that have contributed to circumstances under which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

This media trend has frequently taken the form of uncritically repeating Israeli claims that the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza is inflating the Palestinian death toll, or has otherwise cast suspicion on the credibility of Palestinian death toll reporting.

"As early as 2024, Israeli intelligence agencies have said they consider the numbers reported by the Gaza Health Ministry "generally accurate" and use them internally. Why is that fact left out of your otherwise excellent article?"

On March 28, 2025, CJPME learned that the Toronto Star corrected false claims about the death toll in Israel on October 7, 2023. The correction came after a CJPME social media post criticizing the outlet for repeatedly misrepresenting Israeli and Palestinian death tolls. In an article about protests, the Toronto Star inflated Israeli civilian deaths by at least 45%, while simultaneously downplaying the Palestinian death toll by providing no context about the likely dramatic undercount provided by Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The issue was corrected and a note added. It reads:

Clarification – March 24, 2025

This article was updated from a previous version to make clear that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The previous version referred to the death of 1,200 civilians.

CJPME is grateful that the Star corrects its mistakes, but remains concerned by their repeated failure to provide adequate context about Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.

"I find it extremely disappointing and representative of a lack of balance that pro-Israel voices are provided a platform to criticize Al-Quds day in strong terms, but the reporting on pro-Israel counter protests downplays their far-right claims. The counter protest event poster even features an image of a temple and reads “Build the Temple Now.” This is a reference to destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque and building the “Third Temple” in its place."

"Why does the Star report that “about 1,200 people” were killed in Israel on October 7 —without distinguishing between civilians and fighters — on October 7, but then make a point of stating that the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza “does not distinguish” between civilians and fighters? This is a blatant and inexcusable double standard that only serves to cast doubt on Palestinian casualty figures."

"While I appreciate the inclusion of an op-ed about the situation in Syria, the column is not based on personal interpretation or analysis of facts and instead it is based on misinformation. There were at least two examples of misinformation I found that need to be corrected."

"The claim that the Ministry of Health "does not distinguish between combatants and civilians" is misleading and gives the impression that most Palestinians killed by Israel are combatants when, in fact, the overwhelming majority are civilians. For over a year, Israel has been systematically targeting civilian infrastructure in occupied Gaza, falsely justifying these attacks by claiming that Hamas leaders are concealing weapons—a narrative the resistance has consistently denied."

"It is even more important that such glaring double standards are prevented when reporting on Palestinian and Israeli deaths. Such slanted boilerplate language violates numerous journalistic standards in Canada. CJPME urges the Canadian Press and Toronto Star to update this article and similar language going forward."

"You attribute responsibility for the deaths of Israeli civilians and soldiers on October 7 to Hamas militants, yet you use passive voice when stating that “the war has killed 43,000 in occupied Gaza,” failing to attribute responsibility to Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza that has resulted in over 43,000 Palestinian deaths."