Beit Hanoun: what Wikipedia removed
Beit Hanoun is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip where an IDF shelling killed 19 Palestinian civilians in 2006. Through 2020 the opening reported that the United Nations appointed a fact-finding commission, to be led by Desmond Tutu, to investigate whether the shelling constituted a war crime, and that the investigation was cancelled for lack of Israeli cooperation. Today the opening carries none of this; war crime survives twice in the body. A reader today does not learn that a UN war crimes investigation into the shelling was appointed and then cancelled.
The word “war crime” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2015. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 2. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| war crime | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The description of Beit Hanoun’s status was reworded between snapshots, a wording change rather than a removal of fact.
- The plain statement that Beit Hanoun is administered by the Hamas administration is gone, replaced by a description of the town as militarily contested, giving a reader today a vaguer picture of who has governed it.
- The location description was reworded without a substantive change to the facts given.
- The passage reporting that 19 Palestinian civilians died in 2006 IDF shelling, that the UN appointed a Desmond Tutu-led commission to investigate it as a possible war crime, and that the investigation was cancelled for lack of Israeli cooperation, is gone from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16847718):
Beit Hanoun (Arabic: بيت حانون) is a Palestinian town of 35,000 people on the Gaza Strip . It is located on the north-east edge of the Gaza Strip, just 6 km away from Israeli town of Sderot . The biggest family clan in Beit Hanoun is Zaneen of more than 5,000 people. v t e
2025 (revision 1289559131):
Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip Municipality type A in North Gaza, State of Palestine Beit Hanoun or Beit Hanun ( Arabic : بيت حانون ) is a Palestinian city on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip . According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the town had a population of 52,237 in 2017. As a result of the ongoing Gaza war , Beit Hanoun has been militarily contested between the Hamas administration and Israel . Furthermore, the town has been entirely depopulated, and virtually all its structures have either been destroyed or rendered unusable due to extreme damage. The remains of Beit Hanoun are located by the Nahal-Hanun stream, 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) away from the Israeli …
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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