Almost a week after it first repeated unsubstantiated claims from Hamas that a hospital in Gaza had been leveled in an Israeli air strike, the New York Times is admitting that it relied too heavily on the terrorists in its initial reporting.

In an editor’s note published Monday, the Times says its early coverage of what has since become an international lightning rod in the war of words between Hamas, their international supporters, and Israel attributed the information to Palestinian officials and noted that Israel was investigating the allegation.

“The early versions of the coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified,” the note states. “The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was.”

Critics of the paper’s early coverage of the incident noted that the article was accompanied by a large, banner headline and pictures of other bombed out buildings in Gaza, but not the Ahli Arab hospital complex itself. In subsequent reports, the paper changed the headline and substance of the article to note the conflicting reports of responsibility for the incident.

Since the incident, evidence has emerged from Israeli, American, and European sources confirming that the hospital was struck not by an Israeli missile but instead by an errant rocket fired toward Israel from Gaza that misfired and landed in the parking lot of the hospital. Instead of the nearly 500 deaths attributed to the incident by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, international observers say the death toll was likely in the dozens.

A lengthy news article accompanying the editors’ note published by the Times Sunday and updated Monday, the paper states in its lead paragraph that Hamas has yet to provide any evidence linking Israel to the attack, says it cannot find the munitions that hit the hospital complex — the paper quotes a Hamas spokesman as saying “the missile has dissolved like salt in the water” — and declined to back up its claim of hundreds of deaths.

The editors’ mea culpa said the paper’s standards were not met in its early reporting.

“Given the sensitive nature of the news during a widening conflict, and the prominent promotion it received, Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation, and been more explicit about what information could be verified,” the note says. “Newsroom leaders continue to examine procedures around the biggest breaking news events — including for the use of the largest headlines in the digital report — to determine what additional safeguards may be warranted.”