On Wednesday morning, The Washington Post released a list of 18,500 names that it says represent all the children have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. However, it is almost certain that some of the names on the list were Hamas fighters because the age of enlistment in the U.S. is not the same as it is for Hamas.

As part of their list, compiled from the Hamas-run health ministry, the Post breaks it down by age from not yet one to 17. The clear trend is for the number of children killed to go up with age. For example, ages 11 and under all come in at under 1,000. However, 1,084 13-year olds, 1,132 14-year olds, 1,064 15-year olds, 1,212 16-year olds, and 1,218 17-year olds are listed as having been killed.

Let’s assume for simplicity’s sake that every person listed as killed was a real person and really has died, meaning Hamas isn’t completely making stuff up. There are still problems with the Post’s list. As it itself admits, the ministry “does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.”

That is critical because the reader is supposed to believe that at least 30 percent of the 60,000 Gazan deaths since the beginning of the war have been innocent children. However, we know that Hamas fighters can be as young as 13.

Let’s return to our earlier numbers. The Post listed 5,710 people being from 13-17-years old. Let’s assume 72 percent are men because that is what the non-profit Honest Reporting concluded in March 2025. That means 4,111, or 22 percent—over one-fifth—of the Post’s list were possible combatants.

Now, let’s be extra charitable because not every fighting-age male is a Hamas fighter. If we put the number at 50 percent, that gives us a maximum of 2,855 potential combatants, or 15 percent of the Post’s list.

Some may say that 14,389-15,645 child deaths is still too much, but for a paper that claims “democracy dies in darkness” and has been horrifically biased on this emotionally-charged issue, factual accuracy matters.