On the May 10 broadcast of CTV National News, Anchor Lisa LaFlamme made the following unsubstantiated claim in her introduction of a report by Paul Workman:

In the very early days of this pandemic, there was cooperation to a certain degree between Israelis and Palestinian authorities to contain the virus, that’s gone now and in its place: violence. Today it escalated. The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 20 people, including 9 children were killed in a series of airstrikes. CTV’s Paul Workman on how the situation spiraled.”

Watch the report by clicking here or below:

Firstly, on what basis can CTV National News claim that cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians to combat COVID-19 is gone? If CTV cannot substantiate this claim, it must be immediately retracted.

Secondly, CTV is relying on statistics from Gaza’s Health Ministry which is run by the terror group Hamas, known for its duplicity and whose information is not trustworthy and has not been independently verified.

On this issue alone, CBC and the Associated Press report that:

Since sundown Monday, 28 Palestinians — including 10 children and a woman— were killed in Gaza, most by airstrikes, Gaza health officials said. The Israeli military said at least 16 of the dead were militants.”

In Gaza, most of the deaths were attributed to airstrikes. However, seven of the deaths were members of a single family, including three children, who died in a mysterious explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It was not clear if the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike or errant rocket.”

As of this writing, Israel claims that 16 of the dead are “militants” or combatants, as well, it’s not known whether Israeli airstrikes killed all 28 Palestinians or if some of the fatalities were due to errant Palestinian rocket fire.

CTV is duty bound to not accept Hamas’ version of events as facts and to acknowledge the competing Israeli claims.

HonestReporting Canada has filed a complaint with CTV National News requesting that immediate corrective action be taken. Stay tuned to this page for any future updates.