NY Times headline sparks controversy with claim about Gaza death toll

The New York Times print edition ran a controversial headline, which reads: “Gaza Deaths Surpass Any Arab War Losses in 40 Years.” (Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, File)

A headline in the newspaper edition of The New York Times claims that the estimated 20,000 deaths in Gaza during its war with Israel have surpassed the tolls of "any Arab war" in the past 40 years, appearing to discount the more than 306,000 civilians believed to have been killed in the 10-year Syria conflict between 2011 and 2021.

The article, bearing the headline “Gaza Deaths Surpass Any Arab War Losses in 40 Years,” appeared in Friday’s paper edition of The Times.

The article’s headline on The Times’ website, however, specifies "wars with Isreal." The entire digital headline reads, “Gaza Deaths Surpass Any Arab Loss in Wars With Israel in Past 40 Years,” and has a publication timestamp of Thursday.

The seemingly misleading headline in the newspaper edition was called out on social media by the former head of speechwriting for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the U.N., Aviva Klompas.

Klompas wrote that The Times “is now just making sh-- up,” and said that “one whole second of Googling” found conflicting information.

The information that Klompas cites in her post is found in a June 2022 press release from the U.N. Human Rights Office, which says that the office estimates more than 306,000 civilians were killed over 10 years in the Syria conflict.

“The UN Human Rights Office today published a report that, following rigorous assessment and statistical analysis of available data on civilian casualties, estimates that 306,887 civilians were killed between 1 March 2011 and 31 March 2021 in Syria due to the conflict,” the 2022 release states. “This is the highest estimate yet of conflict-related civilian deaths in Syria.”