The Washington Post is facing intense backlash on Friday after it posted, from its official X account, a tweet criticizing the desperate parents of an American hostage kidnapped by Hamas. The tweet was meant to accompany the paper’s largely sympathetic article about the parents’ efforts to win their son’s freedom.  

The tweet was drawn from an article, published yesterday, about the parents of Omer Neutra, 22. Ronen and Orna Neutra, who live on New York’s Long Island, have been on a desperate journey to bring their son home after he was taken hostage in the October 7 massacre, and spoke at the Republican National Convention. The article notes that their son, age 22, is one of five Americans believed to still be held hostage by Hamas. 

“Omer Neutra has been missing since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. When his parents speak publicly, they don’t talk about Israel’s assault on Gaza that has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, according to local officials. Experts have warned of looming famine,” the Washington Post wrote on its X account on Friday morning. 

Omer Neutra has been confirmed by the Israeli government as one of Hamas’ hostages and is not “missing.” Israel has said about 116 hostages remain in Gaza, although some of them are believed to be dead.

The Post deleted the tweet, and in a statement called it “unacceptable” and a violation of the newspaper’s editorial standards.

“The reporter of the story was not involved in crafting the tweet,” the Post added. “We have taken the appropriate action regarding this incident.” The Post did not immediately respond to a question from the Sun about what “appropriate action” it took. It has said in the past that it has a blanket policy of not commenting on personnel matters, though it has broken that policy regularly.

The new tweet referencing the article says that “Omer Neutra, an American hostage in the Israel-Hamas war, has been missing since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. His parents have mounted a relentless effort to get him released, speaking to anyone who might be able to support their cause.” The Post adds that the previous tweet about the article “mischaracterized the efforts of Neutra’s parents.”

Yet, the new tweet is also facing criticism, including from the Embassy of Israel, which says that “after updating their offensively misleading tweet,” the paper “still insisted on saying that 22-year-old American hostage, Omer Neutra, has been ‘MISSING’ since October 7th.” 

“This isn’t a game of hide and seek,” the embassy noted on its X account. “Omer was KIDNAPPED to GAZA by HAMAS TERRORISTS and has been held captive in unimaginable conditions for over 9 months.” 

Although much of the backlash has been directed at the Post’s now-deleted tweet, critics are pointing out that the tweet merely repeated language that was in the article itself.  This language remains in the Post’s article, with no apology. 

“When the Neutras speak publicly, they don’t talk about the ferocity of Israel’s counterattack, which has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians and left nearly 90,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry,” the article reads. 

It’s not clear if that language came from the article’s author, Joanna Slater, or if it was inserted by an editor. 

“You may have deleted the post, but the thoughtless characterization of Omer Neutra’s parents — who have spent the last 287 days not knowing the fate of their son after he was kidnapped by terrorists on Oct 7 —  remains in your article,” the Anti-Defamation League’s chief executive, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote on a tweet directed at the Post. 

“And to add insult to injury, the article cites ‘local officials,’ aka the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas — the terror organization that launched the barbaric 10/7 massacre that led to the ongoing war,” he added.

Leading U.S. news organizations such as the Washington Post and the New York Times have been riven by internal strife over their coverage of Gaza. Often the tension has been between the more traditional, core reporting staff and younger employees who work in ancillary editorial capacities such as social media, audio and video products, audience development and technology. 

The New York Times recently conducted an unsuccessful mole hunt to try to root out who leaked to the Intercept, a far-left investigative publication, information about the internal debate over producing a podcast version of a Times report about Hamas members raping and killing Israeli women on October 7. The article, by a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent, had enraged anti-Israel staffers in the Times’ audio department.

Internal feuding at the Post over identity and intersectional issues is nothing new. Two years ago, the Post fired a Harvard-educated reporter, Felicia Sonmez, for “insubordination” after she publicly and repeatedly criticized colleagues.