In February 2015, the Daily Mail accused Israel of intentionally opening dams in southern Israel in order to flood the Gaza Strip. This was based on a piece in Al Jazeera, which quoted the Palestinian authorities and was also picked up by Vice. There was only one small problem with the story: There are no dams in southern Israel. The article also contained a reference to the Israelis cutting off power to “two of Gaza’s main West Bank cities,” despite the fact that the West Bank and Gaza are geographically separate entities. In reality, the flooding in Gaza was caused by rain and drainage issues. When notified of the nonexistence of the supposed dams, the Mail amended the article, removing a quote from Palestinian Brigadier General Said Al-Saudi and the reference to Gazan West Bank cities.
Pro-Israel organization HonestReporting (which has its own set of biases) accused the Daily Mail of journalistic “false balance” by including the Palestinian charge of Israeli responsibility for the flooding along with the Israeli denial of same, despite the fact that only the latter was based on reality.
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