Washington Post lays off third of its staff, including entire Middle East department after persistent allegations of anti-Israel bias

The Washington Post fired a third of its overall staff on Wednesday, including all editors and correspondents in the Middle East, who had been consistently criticized for an anti-Israel bias in their reporting throughout the Gaza War.

The layoffs are “painful” and “difficult,” executive editor Matt Murray wrote in an internal memo cited by Business Insider, explaining that “the need has never been more urgent to reposition The Post” toward a “more flexible, sustainable model.”

The cuts included the paper’s sports section, its coverage of literature, and several foreign bureaus. Ukraine correspondent Lizzie Johnson wrote on 𝕏 that she “was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I'm devastated.”

The Post has come under consistent criticism from Israel for its biased coverage of the Gaza War throughout the past two and a half years, having been forced to issue numerous corrections of its stories, which were often quietly added days after their first publication.

Exemplifying concerns about the Post’s biased coverage, Eitan Fischberger, an independent journalist and investigator, highlighted the case of Heba Farouk Mahfouz, an openly anti-Israel journalist assigned to cover the Gaza War for the Washington Post.

Meet Heba Farouk Mahfouz, a reporter in the @washingtonpost's Cairo Bureau.

Since the start of 2025, all 13 of the articles she's written have focused on Israel and Hamas.

The problem? She actually supports Hamas, and thinks Israel shouldn't exist. Let's dive in 🧵 pic.twitter.com/XcOEKpkeyg

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) March 11, 2025

Commenting on a post by former Cairo bureau chief Claire Parker announcing her dismissal, Fischberger noted that “For years, WaPo has been a laughingstock, often dubbed ‘Al Jazeera on the Potomac.'"

“The paper hit rock bottom last year when I uncovered that a correspondent assigned to cover Gaza, named Heba Farouk Mahfouz, openly supported Hamas and referred to Israel as an illegal state – yet WaPo didn’t fire her or reassign her. In fact, they kept her on the exact same beat,” he added.

Fishberger had noted the fact that Mahfouz has been contributing to dozens of articles covering Israel and the Gaza War, despite having written several posts on 𝕏, most of them between 2012 and 2014, calling Israel “illegal,” arguing that Zionism is “racism,” and declaring her support for Hamas and Hezbollah, “as long as their weapons are against Israel.”

Another incident highlighting the questionable attitudes toward Israel among the paper’s staff came in May 2025, when correspondent Louisa Loveluck, whose coverage of the war has required major corrections by the Post on several occasions, harshly criticized Israel.

In an online speech to the newsroom, she decried a level of suffering among Gazan civilians that “is so grave that we have often struggled to find the words,” using Hamas’ death toll without mentioning “Hamas or the hostages once,” according to a colleague who spoke to Jewish Insider.

The unnamed journalist added that Loveluck’s speech “really exemplifies the Post’s coverage of the war: ignoring Hamas’ actions – so readers don’t understand why Israel is fighting in Gaza at all.”

In July 2024, the Post came under fire for an article scolding the parents of Israeli hostage Omer Neutra for not highlighting the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza while speaking about their son’s kidnapping.

In a story covering their speech at the Republican National Convention, correspondent Joanna Slater noted that “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,” uncritically citing statistics given by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

A post on 𝕏 linking to the article further noted that Neutra “has been missing since Oct. 7.”

In follow-up posts on 𝕏, the paper later acknowledged it had “deleted a previous tweet for this story that mischaracterized the efforts of Neutra’s parents,” saying it was “unacceptable and did not meet our editorial standards, and The Post has deleted it.”

At the time, an unnamed journalist at the paper told the Jewish Insider, “The Post keeps failing to meet its commitment to fairness in stories about American Jews. I know it’s costing us our readers’ trust, because they’ve told me so. Top management needs to fix this ASAP.”

Despite consistent coverage of the paper’s bias by various outlets, including the Jewish Insider, other outlets have defended it.

In its coverage of the layoffs at the Washington Post, Israel’s far-left newspaper Haaretz noted that the paper’s “coverage of the Gaza Strip in particular earned widespread praise and international recognition – including honors from the Overseas Press Club and recognition as a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting.”

Many of the paper’s former employees have blamed its troubles on its owner, Jeff Bezos, for allegedly trying steer a rightward course, for example, by pulling back from a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris in 2024 or including more conservative voices in the opinion pages.

“Loyal readers, livid as they saw owner Jeff Bezos betraying the values he was supposed to uphold, fled The Post,” said former Post editor-in-chief Martin Baron. “In truth, they were driven away, by the hundreds of thousands.”

“Bezos's sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump have left an especially ugly stain of their own. This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction,” he added.