ABC News faces fury for labeling 'slain' Hamas hostages as merely 'deceased'

ABC News faced a fierce wave of backlash for its reporting on Hamas' announced plan to release additional hostages in two phases later this week.

The terrorist group claimed it will release the bodies of four hostages on Thursday and six living hostages on Saturday.

'Civilian hostages, little children, murdered by the evil, brutal scum of Hamas.'

According to Hamas, the two youngest people kidnapped by the group, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, are no longer alive; their bodies are among the four to be returned this week. Kfir was just 9 months old and Ariel was 4 when they were abducted along with their parents, Shiri and Yarden Bibas, in October 2023. Shiri reportedly is also dead. Yarden was released last month.

ABC News published an article on the update, writing in a post on X, "Hamas will release the bodies of four deceased hostages on Thursday and six living hostages on Saturday, Hamas and Israel confirmed. Four more dead hostages will be released next week, according to Israel."

Social media users lambasted ABC News in the comments for softening its language regarding Hamas by outright omitting any mention that the group is suspected of murdering the "deceased hostages."

"Deceased, yes. Why are they 'deceased,' exactly?" one user wrote. "Any chance you left out the detail that they were murdered? Seems at least a little relevant."

"The people who are paid to use precise words to record every event are suddenly at a loss to find the right word to describe Hamas murdering hostages," another individual stated. "'Deceased' was a deliberate and very poor choice by ABC."

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) blasted the news outlet for referring to the young children as "deceased" and "dead."

"Do you mean 'murdered,' @ABC?" he asked. "Civilian hostages, little children, murdered by the evil, brutal scum of Hamas."

The Israeli prime minister's office appeared to confirm that the civilian hostages were murdered, referring to them as "four slain hostages," CNN reported.

The office noted that "four additional slain hostages are expected to be handed over to Israel next week."

Hamas has previously claimed that the Bibas family was killed in a November 2023 Israeli airstrike. However, the terrorist group did not provide evidence, and the Israeli military has not confirmed the claims.

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