Israel has slammed the global media coverage of the deadly terror attack in Tel Aviv, calling it "inadequate" after some major news outlets refused to describe the event as terrorism.
Ra’ad Hazem, a 28-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, on Thursday night opened fire at a crown of people at the Ilka bar on the city's busy Dizengoff Street, killing three Israelis and wounding several others. He was ultimately eliminated by Israeli security forces after hours-long manhunt.
The Foreign Ministry, as well as Israeli embassies across the world, found themselves trying to convince different media outlets to change their lacking headlines, which referred to Hazem as either "gunman" or simply "a Palestinian".
Due to Israel's pressure, some of the publications altered their reports, but many still insisted on omitting the "terror" labels.
The initial report from the Reuters news agency read: "Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian after Tel Aviv bar attack".
After Israeli backlash, the news agency rewrote the news bulletin as "Israeli security forces on Friday shot dead a Palestinian suspected of killing three people in a Tel Aviv bar, in the latest attack in a series amid renewed tensions between Palestinians and Israelis".
BBC, the internationally-known British broadcasting agency, also steered clear of the words "terror" or "terrorist," titling their report as "Palestinian gunman killed by Israeli security forces after deadly attack at Tel Aviv bar".
The Guardian, another British publication, reported on the attack by writing that "Israeli forces kill Palestinian after Tel Aviv shooting leaves two dead". It later altered it to: "Israel: Two dead after gunman opens fire in Tel Aviv bar".
The Foreign Ministry severely criticized the media outlets for what they say was unbalanced reporting, tweeting, "Words have consequences".
"When mistakes are made, it’s crucial that news outlets rectify misleading reporting immediately. The Guardian did so today, when they fixed the headline of a recent article published in the wake of the deadly terror attack in which two Israelis were murdered."
Fox News, the conservative American outlet, appeared to be the only publications in the mainstream media to use he word terrorist, yet still did so cautiously, writing: "Multiple people shot in Tel Aviv 'terrorist' attack, police say".
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lior Haiat later tweeted: "TERRORIST. If you can’t call the man who murdered Israelis just for being Israelis a terrorist, you are legitimizing his actions.
"Organizations that keep silent after this kind of terror attack, have no moral right to call themselves human rights organizations."