Times of Israel, on West Bank, 23 October 2026

The Times of Israel relays Netanyahu's announcement that Israeli forces will destroy a Hebron neighbourhood, and in its own voice describes the mass removal of refugee camp residents as the IOF having "cleared residents" from camps "where terrorist groups have been operating", stating the army's justification as established fact. It never tells its reader that the two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops, never names them, never says the West Bank is occupied or that the Hebron settlements are illegal, and closes with a minister's sweeping claim about Iranian and Muslim Brotherhood plots with nothing set against it.

9.2

Serious

out of 10

What we found

  1. Uses the occupation's words

    Serious

    “the IDF has cleared residents from refugee camps”

    What the words do
    Writes the removal of a civilian population from their homes as the IOF having "cleared residents", a tidying word with no people being forced anywhere in it.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That residents simply moved or were moved out of harm's way in a routine military tidying operation.
    What is actually the case
    This describes the expulsion of refugee camp populations from their homes. The article never uses the words expelled or displaced anywhere, and gives the reader no sense that anyone lost a home.

    How we know

    • Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “expelled” and “displaced”.

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, Israeli occupation forces have expelled residents from refugee camps and demolished homes in them.

  2. States one side's claim as fact

    Serious

    “where terrorist groups have been operating”

    What the words do
    States the army's justification for emptying the refugee camps in the newspaper's own voice, with no attribution and nothing to check it against.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That it is established fact that the camps whose residents were removed were bases for terrorist groups, so the removals were warranted.
    What is actually the case
    This is the Israeli government's own characterisation. The article's own text shows it is Netanyahu's framing, offered in his quoted words, not a verified finding.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“which are essentially terrorist strongholds”

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Since October 2023 Israeli occupation forces have expelled residents from West Bank refugee camps, which Israel describes as strongholds of armed groups.

  3. Leaves out what changes the picture

    Serious

    “the gunmen who carried out today’s West Bank shooting attack hailed”

    What the words do
    Refers to the two Palestinians only as gunmen who came from a neighbourhood, and never says what happened to them.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That the two men are at large or unaccounted for, and that they have no names.
    What is actually the case
    Israeli troops shot both men dead at the checkpoint, and Palestinian media named them as Mohammad Jaaba and Firas Jaaba, both 27 and from Hebron. No form of the word killed appears anywhere in this article.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Israeli troops shot dead the two Palestinians, named by Palestinian media as Mohammad and Firas Jaaba, both 27 and from Hebron, after a shooting at a checkpoint in which five Israelis were wounded.

  4. Leaves out what changes the picture

    Serious

    “Israel will also clear homes built without permits along roads in the West Bank”

    What the words do
    Reports the demolition of Palestinian homes as clearing houses that lacked permits, and leaves the permit explanation to stand on its own.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That the homes to be destroyed are simply unlawful buildings, so their destruction is a matter of enforcement.
    What is actually the case
    Palestinians in Area C of the occupied West Bank are almost never granted building permits, so the absence of a permit is a product of the occupation's planning regime, not a free choice. The article never tells the reader this, and never uses the word demolish, although Israeli bulldozers were already demolishing Palestinian homes in Hebron that day.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Netanyahu said Israel would also demolish Palestinian homes built without permits along West Bank roads. Israel almost never grants building permits to Palestinians in Area C, where most such homes stand.

  5. Hedges the documented record

    Serious

    “since Israel captured the territory in 1967”

    What the words do
    Describes Israel's hold on the West Bank as having captured a territory, the only time the article touches the legal status of the place it reports from.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That Israel's presence in the West Bank is a settled fact of conquest with no legal question attached to it.
    What is actually the case
    The International Court of Justice ruled in July 2024 that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is unlawful. The words occupied, occupation, unlawful and illegal appear nowhere in this article, which reports a plan to destroy homes in that territory.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Netanyahu said the army has plans for the largest operation in the occupied West Bank since Israel occupied the territory in 1967. The ICJ ruled in July 2024 that the occupation is unlawful.

  6. Gives a contested claim the last word

    Serious

    “are planning to carry out attacks and terrorist attacks against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians in order to sabotage and influence the upcoming elections in Israel”

    What the words do
    Closes the article with the defence minister's claim that Iran, its proxies and the Muslim Brotherhood are plotting attacks to sway the Israeli election, with nothing set against it.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That a foreign plot to disrupt the election lies behind the shooting, as the minister says.
    What is actually the case
    Nothing in the article supports the claim, and Netanyahu himself blamed Hamas for the attack at an emergency meeting the same day. The article offers the reader no attribution of responsibility other than the minister's assertion and no response to it.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Katz said Iran's axis and the Muslim Brotherhood were planning attacks to influence the election. He gave no evidence for this, and Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the shooting at a security cabinet meeting the same day.

  7. Leaves out what changes the picture

    Minor

    “Turning to Israel’s “heroic settlers” days before the general election”

    What the words do
    Carries Netanyahu's praise of settlers days before the vote without a word about what the settlers in Hebron are.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That settlers in Hebron are ordinary citizens being honoured by their prime minister.
    What is actually the case
    The settlements in Hebron are illegal under international law, as the ICJ found in July 2024, and other outlets reporting the same day said so plainly.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

  8. Leaves out what changes the picture

    Minor

    What is missing

    Israeli bulldozers had already begun demolishing Palestinian homes in Hebron near the site of the shooting on the same day. Without this the reader takes Netanyahu's destruction plan as a future intention rather than something already under way against people's homes.

    How we know

    Show where it belongs

Every underline is part of a finding. Press one to see why.

Netanyahu: Hebron neighborhood of gunmen in checkpoint attack to ...

Netanyahu: Hebron neighborhood of gunmen in checkpoint attack to be ‘destroyed’

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Israel will “destroy” the Hebron neighborhood from which , says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to the West Bank city with Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely,” Netanyahu says in a video released by his office. “But we are going to do something that has not been done until now: We will implement the successful and aggressive model we used in the refugee camps, which are essentially terrorist strongholds.”

Across the West Bank, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, .

“That is exactly what we will do here, in the neighborhood in Hebron from which the terrorists emerged,” Netanyahu continues. “We will evacuate the residents, we will go house to house, we will remove the weapons there as well, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed.”

, says Netanyahu, citing “a threat to our forces.”

Netanyahu says that the IDF has plans to carry out a major operation in the West Bank, the largest : “The IDF is prepared to carry it out, and we will determine the timing, but it is on the way.”

, Netanyahu says they are “a model for the people of Israel; you are a model for the State of Israel.”

Katz says that today’s attack was part of what he and Netanyahu have been warning about in recent weeks.

“Iran’s Shiite axis and its proxies, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood axis, ,” he argues.

The Times of Israel Community.

Read the original article on timesofisrael.com (opens in a new tab)

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