An Israeli strike destroys a warehouse beside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza. A crater remains. Medical supplies are scattered across the site.

Those facts are visible.

What the warehouse actually was is not.

Palestinian officials say it was a medical supplies warehouse. Israel says Hamas had turned the site into a weapons cache hidden beside the hospital.

Reuters reported both claims. But after Israel’s explanation came an important sentence:

“The Israeli military… did not provide any evidence.“

Fair enough. But where is the equivalent sentence for the Palestinian claim?

What evidence was presented that the warehouse contained only medical supplies? Who independently verified it was not also being used by Hamas? The reporting does not say.

Reuters and CNN took the Palestinian Authority version of events as plain facts but left a question outstanding about the Israeli account. The reader is left with one side making a factual assertion, while the other appears to be offering an unsupported excuse.

Journalists should demand evidence from Israel. They should also demand it from Palestinian authorities. If neither side has independently substantiated its account, then neither claim should receive a presumption of truth.

In war, the burden of proof should not belong to only one side. Journalism earns trust when it applies the same evidentiary standard to everyone.