Outrage after Sky News describes Israeli soldiers as ‘teenage victims’

Sky News has provoked outrage online after publishing a headline on Monday saying “Israel names teenage soldiers killed in Hezbollah attack – as ’23 die’ in Gaza school strike”. 

The headline refers to the soldiers as teenagers and says they were killed by Hezbollah.

By contrast, it puts Palestinian deaths in quotation marks and does not clarify that the school strike was carried out by the Israeli military.

The headline was still up at 3pm British time, while the story appeared on Sky News’ X account with a description of the soldiers as “teenage victims” – not referencing that they were soldiers.

But the headline has since been changed to, “Israel names soldiers killed in Hezbollah drone attack – as 23 killed in Gaza school strike”, following outrage online.

https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1845542755163886062

Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for the drone attack on a military base in northern Israel which killed at least four soldiers and wounded scores of others.

The group said it fired a “swarm of drones” on a base in Binyamina, Israel,  belonging to the Israeli army’s Golani Brigade. 

On Sunday evening, a Sky News segment over three minutes long was widely criticised for not mentioning that the attack was on a military base.

A post on Monday on X by The Telegraph also called the soldiers “teenage soldiers” and named them. 

Criticism of media coverage of the Hezbollah attack spread like wildfire online on Sunday evening and throughout Monday.

Hezbollah says its attack was in retaliation for Israel’s bombing of central Beirut on Thursday, which killed at least 22 people.

The group then warned Israel that “what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our noble and dear people”.

Israel has killed over 2,300 people in Lebanon since clashes with Hezbollah started on 8 October 2023.

Most of these deaths took place after 23 September 2024.