How many times are we going to do this? That was my immediate reaction when American news outlets began to report that an Israeli airstrike had demolished an Orthodox church in Gaza. 

Just days earlier, one of the biggest press failures in modern history occurred as nearly every mainstream news outlet in the country rushed to take the word of Hamas officials about a hospital supposedly being bombed. Within 12 hours, essentially everything that had been reported had been debunked. The hospital was not struck, the reported death toll was completely improbable, and it turned out to be a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that fell short, not an IAF bombing. 

CNN, The Washington Post, NBC News, The New York Times, MSNBC, and a litany of other outlets all suffered major embarrassment, leaving many to ask if any lessons would be learned. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that way because the same news organizations all rushed to bolster another Hamas propaganda operation.

Here was how the Post and other press outlets reported the story.

In Gaza, the historic Church of St. Porphyrius was struck as it sheltered hundreds of Palestinians displaced by the war, according to religious officials.

Follow here for more live updates: https://t.co/3Jmh8kso1o

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 20, 2023

You can see exactly which outlets learned something from Tuesday and which ones did not..

NBC News has not changed their headline since the church has clearly not collapsed (or anything close to it). pic.twitter.com/iIlSvOPKrB

— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 20, 2023

Just as with the misreported hospital parking lot explosion, the sun coming up provided far more context to what actually happened. Namely, that the church itself was not deliberately targeted or hit. Rather, it suffered minor damage due to an airstrike on a Hamas target located in a building next door. 

GAZA—The sun has risen, to expose—once again—the media for failing to independently corroborate reports.

The Greek-Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, which Palestinians claimed was bombed by Israel last night, remains standing, although a building next to it was targeted. pic.twitter.com/JS1weE7s2i

— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) October 20, 2023

Palestinian authorities, who have exaggerated death tolls for propaganda reasons in the past, claimed that 50-150 died in the bombing. While there is no official count to report, once again, the speed at which those claims were made makes them questionable. Clearly, some people died, though.

This is not the first time that Hamas has falsely claimed a historic church was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike during the current conflict. Shortly after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking hundreds hostage, a claim was spread that a medieval-era church in Gaza was bombed. That simply didn't happen. 

There are always innocent victims in war. That's unavoidable, but the deliberate attempt to misconstrue every Israeli strike is impossible to ignore. These are standards that no other country is held to.