Reuters reports the killing of Hamas Rafah brigade commander Samir Abu Younis in an Israeli airstrike, naming Israel as the actor from the headline onwards and attributing claims to Hamas, the Israeli military and medics. In its closing figures, Reuters attributes the Palestinian death tolls to Gaza health and Palestinian authorities but gives the Israeli dead with no source in the same sentences, a minor imbalance.
Doubts one side's dead and not the other's
Minor
“Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in the military campaign that Israel launched against Gaza after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel in the October 7 attack.”
Why this matters
Reuters puts the Palestinian toll behind 'Palestinian authorities say' and gives it a passive 'have been killed'. In the same sentence it states in its own voice that 'Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people', with no source attached.
The impression it gives
The Israeli toll is an established fact. The Palestinian toll is only what one party claims.
The context
The Palestinian toll is the figure recorded by Gaza's Ministry of Health, which the record lists as more than 74,000 killed by the Israeli occupation. Reuters gives the two tolls in one sentence but applies a source caveat to only one of them.
How we know
On the recordGaza's Ministry of Health recorded the Israeli occupation as having killed 74,392 Palestinians, a cumulative toll that NewsCord's reading of BBC coverage cites as of October 2026.newscord.org (opens in a new tab)