A colleague at my company shared with me that she couldn’t focus on work after hearing the devastating news about the six hostages killed. This is the reality of life in Israel. We wake up, check the news, and are engulfed by a shared wave of sorrow. It may sound trivial, but during such moments, we feel connected as a collective. It’s an unspoken understanding that we are all grieving together.

Like in the United States, Israeli society is deeply divided on many fundamental issues. Yet, one thing we excel at is uniting in our grief when tragedies like this occur.

What is difficult to comprehend, however, is how some U.S. and European media outlets, in a striking display of hypocrisy, report these events as if they exist in a vacuum. On CNN, you won’t hear the word “murdered.” These hostages were alive, and then they were executed before the Israeli army could reach them. But the headlines only read “six bodies recovered.” They just happened to die. Don’t even get me started on the BBC’s coverage: “Israel recovers six bodies of hostages.” The implication? That these people simply ceased to live, as if by some natural cause.

Pain in the Middle East is shared by all sides. I empathize with the suffering of Palestinians. There are human beings with deep sorrow on both sides. Yet, when it comes to Israeli suffering, the narrative of aggression often overshadows the reality of our pain. The notion that Israel is always the aggressor dismisses the fact that, before Oct. 7, there was no war in Gaza.

This is real pain, experienced by real people. In a world where facts are increasingly seen as subjective, this pain is diminished. Take, for instance, Carmel Gat, one of the hostages who was killed. She wasn’t just a name in the news. Carmel was a 40-year-old occupational therapist, staying with her parents in Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7. She was the family member of a friend — a real person who spent most of her adult life advocating for peace while serving to protect this country.

What these media outlets fail to understand is that by misrepresenting the truth, they are complicit in perpetuating the conflict. This is precisely Hamas’s strategy: provoke a reaction, have the international community pressure Israel to stop, and then continue their destructive plans with Iran.

While we may not agree on many internal issues in Israel, we have an uncanny ability to come together when we feel the world is against us. Right now, it’s not the politicians who bring us together — it’s ordinary Israelis, standing united in the face of tragedy.

Yair Nativ is the CEO of Mind Dome, ‘The First Line of Defense for Your Mind.’