[News] Israel’s Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theintercept.com
<https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/>
Israel’s Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians
Jeremy Scahill
February 7, 2024
------------------------------

Two weeks before Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel on
October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu stood before an empty chamberOpens in a new
tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-09-22/ty-article/.premium/facing-empty-seats-and-massive-protests-netanyahu-promises-imminent-saudi-peace/0000018a-bd79-d490-adca-fdfb29570000>
at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Israeli prime
minister brandished a map of what he promised could be the “New Middle
East.” It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from the
Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. On this map, Gaza and the West Bank
were erased. Palestinians did not exist.

“What a historic change for my country! You see, the land of Israel is
situated on the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe,” Netanyahu
bellowedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-netanyahus-un-address-on-the-cusp-of-historic-saudi-israel-peace/>
at a handful of spectators in the large hall, nearly all of whom were his
loyalists or underlings. “For centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded
by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest
elsewhere. But today, as we tear down walls of enmity, Israel can become a
bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents.”

During that speech, Netanyahu portrayed the full normalizing of relations
with Saudi Arabia, an initiative spearheaded
<https://theintercept.com/2022/06/22/abraham-accords-israel-saudi-arabia-biden/>
under the Trump administration and embraced
<https://theintercept.com/2022/05/27/biden-middle-east-abraham-accords/> by
the Biden White House
<https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-palestine-gaza-diplomacy/>, as
the linchpin of his vision for this “new” reality, one which would open the
door to a “visionary corridor that will stretch across the Arabian
Peninsula and Israel. It will connect India to Europe with maritime links,
rail links, energy pipelines, fiber-optic cables.”

He was speaking on the grand stage of the U.N. General Assembly, but no
world leaders bothered to attend. Outside, some 2,000 people, a mixture of
American Jews and Israeli citizens, protested his attacks
<https://theintercept.com/2023/07/26/intercepted-israel-protests-judicial-overhaul/>
on the independence of the Israeli judiciary system
<https://theintercept.com/2023/03/29/israel-judiciary-war-crimes-palestine/>.
The scene served as a reminder of how deeply unpopular his far-right
governing coalition
<https://theintercept.com/2023/01/06/deconstructed-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-government/>,
not to mention Netanyahu himself, had become in Israel. At that moment, it
seemed that Netanyahu was pushed against the ropes, in a losing battle to
continue his political reign.

Netanyahu is using the horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been
preparing for his entire political career.

Just days later, as Hamas commandos penetrated the barriers encircling Gaza
and embarked on their deadly raids targeting several military installations
as well as kibbutzim, everything changed in an instant. Everything, that
is, except the primary agenda that has been at the center of Netanyahu’s
long political career: the absolute destruction of Palestine and its people.

Just as the Bush administration exploited
<https://theintercept.com/2023/03/15/iraq-war-where-are-they-now/> the 9/11
attacks <https://theintercept.com/collections/the-911-wars/> to justify
<https://theintercept.com/2021/09/10/september-11-america-response/> a sweeping
war
<https://theintercept.com/2021/08/13/reign-of-terror-spencer-ackerman-september-11/>
in which it declared the world a battlefield, Netanyahu is using the
horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his entire
political career. With his grip on power fading last fall, the October 7
attacks provided him with just the opportunity he needed, and he hitched
his political survival to the war on Gaza and what could be his last chance
to eliminate Israel’s Palestinian problem once for all.

In that sense, Bibi was saved by Hamas.
[image: NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2023/09/22: Prime Minister of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the 78th Session of the General Assembly of
the UN. In his speech PM Netanyahu emphasized three main themes: threats
from Iran, Artificial Intelligence development and peace and prosperity in
the Middle East. He urged countries to join Israel in developing
responsible AI saying that this is a technology revolution like industrial
and agricultural in the past. He pitched that recognition by Saudi Arabia
and establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia will
transform the Middle East and he showed a map of Israel in 1948 when the
state was created and how it will look if and when relations with Saudi
Arabia will be normalized by creating trade route directly from India to
Europe via both countries. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket
via Getty Images)]

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu shows a graphic illustrating
his “New Middle East” during his speech at the 78th Session of the U.N.
General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2023.
Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images Intelligence
Failures

Four months in, Netanyahu’s war of annihilation against Gaza has
become a guerrilla
war
<https://theintercept.com/2023/12/20/gaza-israel-biden-netanyahu-war-strategy/>
of attrition. Not a single Israeli hostage has been freed through military
force, and Hamas has shown an enduring resilience and ability to pick off
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/23/israeli-idf-demolition-gaza/> Israel
Defense Forces soldiers. The Israeli public, outside of the ideological
true believers intent on occupying and settlingOpens in a new tab
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-hold-conference-resettlement-gaza-2024-01-28/>
Gaza, is showing signs of fatigue and desperation. Many family members of
captives are growing louderOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/now-demand-hostages-families-supporters-in-call-for-new-release-deal/#:~:text=The%20primary%20message%20delivered%20Sunday,would%20lead%20to%20their%20release.>
in their demands for an immediate deal with Hamas that centers the lives of
their loved ones over the political agenda laid out by Netanyahu and his
clique. Some have demandedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240120-israeli-protesters-demand-return-of-hostages-early-elections>
new elections or Netanyahu’s resignationOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-03/ty-article/.premium/you-are-responsible-for-the-oct-7-holocaust-thousands-protest-against-netanyahus-govt/0000018d-705a-d971-a38f-71fa927b0000>.
Protests against the war, though small, are beginning to grow inside
Israel, with some demonstrationsOpens in a new tab
<https://www.npr.org/2024/01/19/1225651180/israel-tel-aviv-protest-gaza-war>
echoing global calls demanding a humanitarian ceasefire and an end to
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

As the death toll in Gaza surpasses a conservative estimate of 27,000
lives, many of the core narratives deployed by the Israeli and U.S.
governments to justify the slaughter are coming under increased scrutiny;
some have been definitively debunked. In Israel, this is a delicate line of
inquiry. That Hamas killed large numbers of Israelis is not in doubt. But
how they managed to do so while living under the lauded and vigilant eyes
of the Mossad, Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency, and the IDF is the
subject of mounting public attention.

There have been several credible reports that Israeli intelligence analysts
warned that Hamas operatives appeared to be training for raids into Israel.
The New York Times and other outlets have reportedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html>
on the existence of a 40-page internal Hamas document code-named “Jericho
Wall.” Purportedly obtained by Israeli intelligence, it is said to lay out
detailed plans by Hamas to conduct precisely the type of assault against
Israeli military installations and villages that occurred on October 7.

While warnings from Israeli analysts who reviewed the document were
reportedly brushed aside by senior officials, last July a signals
intelligence officer urged the chain of command to take it seriously.
Noting a recent daylong training exercise by Hamas in Gaza, the analyst
asserted that the training precisely mirrored the operations laid out in
the document. “It is a plan designed to start a war,” she pleadedOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html>.
“It’s not just a raid on a village.”
[image: TKUMA, ISRAEL - JANUARY 04: Over 800 Damaged cars from the October
7th Hamas attacks are collected at a site on November 5, 2023 in Tkuma,
Israel. The location received hundreds of cars from the kibbutzes, the Nova
music festival location, and other surrounding areas affected. Each car got
inspected by Zaka, the police and various other teams to identify the cars
and any remnants of bodies. According to Jewish law all parts of a human
being, including blood or body parts must be buried, which Zaka volunteers
are responsible for. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)]

Hundreds of vehicles damaged or destroyed during the October 7 Hamas-led
attacks and subsequent counterstrikes by the Israeli military are collected
at a site in Tkuma, Israel, on Nov. 5, 2023.
Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images

The night before Hamas’s raid, intelligence analysts began reporting
significant evidence suggesting that Hamas might be preparing for an attack
inside Israel. The head of Shin Bet traveled to the south and orders were
issued to deploy a special counterterror force to confront any potential
incursions, according to an investigative reportOpens in a new tab
<https://w.ynet.co.il/yediot/7-days/time-of-darkness> in the Israeli
publication Yedioth Ahronoth.

Shortly after 3 a.m. on October 7, a senior intelligence official concluded
the activity in Gaza was likely another Hamas training exercise, saying,
“We still believe that [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is not pivoting towards
an escalation.”

A few hours later, as Israeli officials gathered in a command center
chaotically scrambling to deploy forces to respond to the multipronged
attacks led by Hamas, a senior officer silenced the room: “The Gaza
Division was overpowered.”

Early on in the war against Gaza, Netanyahu sought to deflect blameOpens in
a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-sharply-criticized-for-post-blaming-intelligence-chiefs-for-oct-7-failure/>
for failing to foresee Hamas’s attacks onto his intelligence services.
“Contrary to the false claims: Under no circumstances and at no stage was
Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of Hamas’s war intentions,” read a tweet
posted on Netanyahu’s official Twitter account. “On the contrary, all the
security officials, including the head of military intelligence and the
head of the Shin Bet, assessed that Hamas had been deterred and was looking
for a settlement. This assessment was submitted again and again to the
prime minister and the cabinet by all the security forces and intelligence
community, up until the outbreak of the war.”

But serious questions lingered over how Hamas was able to lay siege to
large sections of what Israel calls the “Gaza envelope” and whether
Netanyahu had knowledge that an attack of this very nature was being
planned in full view of Israel’s extensive surveillance systems and spy
networks. There is also a mounting body of evidence to indicate that
Israeli forces were given orders on October 7 to stop Hamas’s attacks at
all costs, including the killing of Israeli civilians taken captive by
Palestinian fighters. The Israeli military has indicatedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-announces-probe-of-failures-in-lead-up-to-oct-7-drawing-rage-from-ministers/#:~:text=Israel%20Defense%20Forces%20Chief%20of,criticism%20from%20right%2Dwing%20ministers.>
that it plans to conduct an “uncompromising” investigation into the
intelligence failures, drawing the ire of some far-right members of
Netanyahu’s government.

Under fire from his own ministers and supporters for impugning Israeli
military and intelligence agencies, Netanyahu apologized for his comments,
deleted the tweet, and then shifted to the stance he now repeats: There
will be a time for such inquiries — but only after Israel achieves total
victory in Gaza and eliminates Hamas. “The only thing that I intend to have
resign is Hamas,” he saidOpens in a new tab
<https://apnews.com/article/netanyahu-israel-hamas-politics-palestinians-war-fc430098bc31dd848af0e8b7cf52ce51>
in November. “We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history.”
[image: 03 February 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: A picture
provided on 4 February 2024 shows damage in the area of Al-Maqousi Towers,
Al-Mashtal Hotel, and Al-Khalidi Mosque after the Israeli army withdrew
from north of Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ishaq/dpa (Photo by Omar Ishaq/picture
alliance via Getty Images)]

The destruction in the area where the Al-Maqousi Towers, Al-Mashtal Hotel,
and Al-Khalidi Mosque stood after the Israeli army withdrew from north of
Gaza City on Feb. 3, 2024.
Photo: Omar Ishaq/picture alliance via Getty Images Information Warfare

The violent ethnonationalist ideology at the center of Netanyahu’s reign
was born before his tenure and will endure when he’s gone. But his rule has
embodied the most extremist and destructive version of the Israeli state
project.

Netanyahu understands the power of defining and dominating the narrative,
particularly when targeting it to U.S. audiences. For decades, he has
advanced the Israeli propaganda doctrine of hasbaraOpens in a new tab
<https://mepc.org/speeches/hasbara-and-control-narrative-element-strategy>
— the notion that Israelis must be aggressive about “explaining” and
justifying their actions to the West — to manipulate his adversaries and
allies, domestic and international, into serving his objectives.

Netanyahu’s “vision of himself as the chief defender of the Jewish people
against calamity allowed him to justify almost anything that would keep him
in power,” observedOpens in a new tab
<https://books.google.de/books?id=ypb9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT583&lpg=PT583&dq=obama+promised+land+Netanyahu%27s+vision+of+himself+as+the+chief+defender+of+the+Jewish+people+against+calamity+allowed+him+to+justify+almost+anything+that+would+keep+him+in+power&source=bl&ots=TqMOPqAGGG&sig=ACfU3U34Xa6JNWK2ogrz8aWJDDTFHsSXkw&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=obama%20promised%20land%20Netanyahu's%20vision%20of%20himself%20as%20the%20chief%20defender%20of%20the%20Jewish%20people%20against%20calamity%20allowed%20him%20to%20justify%20almost%20anything%20that%20would%20keep%20him%20in%20power&f=false>
former President Barack Obama in his 2020 memoir.

In the aftermath of October 7, Netanyahu cast Israel’s siege of a tiny
strip of land the size of Philadelphia as a war of the worlds in which the
very fate of humanity was at stake. “It’s not only our war. It’s your war
too,” Netanyahu said in his first interviewOpens in a new tab
<https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sotu/date/2023-11-12/segment/01> on CNN
after the October 7 attacks. “It’s the battle of civilization against
barbarism. And if we don’t win here, this scourge will pass. The Middle
East will pass to other places. The Middle East will fall. Europe is next.
You will be next.”

The Israeli government rapidly deployed a multipronged propaganda strategy
to win unprecedented support from the U.S. and other Western governments
for a sweeping war against the entire population of Gaza. To oppose
Israel’s war is antisemitic
<https://theintercept.com/2023/06/06/antisemitism-definition-israel-palestine/>;
to question its assertions about the events of October 7 is akin to
Holocaust denial; to protest the mass killing
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/11/palestine-israel-protests-ceasefire-antisemitic/>of
Palestinian civilians is to do the bidding of Hamas
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/09/republican-debate-hamas-gaza-ceasefire/>
.

At the center of Israel’s information warfare campaign is a tactical
mission to dehumanize Palestinians and to flood the public discourse with a
stream of false, unsubstantiated, and unverifiable allegations.

“We were struck Saturday by an attack whose savagery I can say we have not
seen since the Holocaust,” Netanyahu told President Joe Biden in a phone
callOpens in a new tab <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq5hTirpL9s> on
October 11. “They took dozens of children, bound them up, burned them and
executed them.” He added: “We have never seen such savagery in the history
of the state. They’re even worse than ISIS and we need to treat them as
such.”

“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” saidOpens in
a new tab
<https://timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/>
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on October 9.

The message of these statements and others like them was clear: Israel is
confronting monsters, and no one has any business telling the Jewish state,
established in the aftermath of World War II under the mantra of “Never
again,” how to respond to an attempted genocide. Israeli officials
routinely invoke the Holocaust, compare Hamas to the Nazis or to ISIS, and
portray the events of October 7 as evidence of an organized effort to
commit genocide against the Jewish people.

On October 10, three days after the attacks, the Israeli military organized
a tour for international journalists to view the scene at Kfar Aza Kibbutz.
As they guided reporters and camera crews through the community, IDF
officials spread rumorsOpens in a new tab
<https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/unverified-allegations-beheaded-babies-israel-hamas-war-inflame-social-rcna119902>
that as many as 40 babiesOpens in a new tab
<https://www.declassifieduk.org/beheaded-babies-how-uk-media-reported-israels-fake-news-as-fact/>
had been murdered by Hamas, some of them beheaded. “It’s something I never
saw in my life. It’s something I used to imagine of my grandmother and my
grandfather in Europe and other places,” an Israeli general toldOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-takes-foreign-journalists-to-see-massacre-site-in-kfar-aza/>
reporters. “We got very, very disturbing reports that came from the ground
that there were babies that had been beheaded,” saidOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1MYGNorgjgLJw> IDF spokesperson Jonathan
Conricus in a briefing for international journalists. “I admit it took us
some time to really understand and to verify that report. It was hard to
believe that even Hamas could perform such a barbaric act.”

Lt. Col. Guy Basson, deputy commander of the Israeli army’s Kfir Brigade,
claimed that he saw the aftermath of eight babies who were executedOpens in
a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-21/ty-article/.premium/army-officer-makes-incorrect-claims-on-oct-7-massacre-idf-well-set-record-straight/0000018d-2c67-daf5-a1bf-ac77f9b50000>
in a nursery at Kibbutz Be’eri. Among the victims, Basson asserted, was
also a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. “I see the number engraved on
her arm, and you say to yourself, she went through the Holocaust in
Auschwitz and ended up dying on Kibbutz Be’eri.” Another Israeli soldier
toldOpens in a new tab
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-journalist-slams-army-feeding-false-line-hamas>
a journalist that “babies and children were hung on a clothes line in a
row.”
[image: US President Joe Biden speaks with Eli Beer, Founder of United
Hatzalah of Israel, while meeting with people in Tel Aviv on October 18,
2023, effected by this month's attacks on Israel by the Palestinian
militant group Hamas. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians
have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in
the Gaza Strip entered southern Israel in a surprise attack, holding some
people hostage, that lead Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza on October
8. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via
Getty Images)]

President Joe Biden speaks with Eli Beer, founder of volunteer EMS
organization United Hatzalah of Israel on Oct. 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv. Beer
told several graphic stories about the Hamas attacks that were later
debunked.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Three weeks after the October 7 attacks, Eli Beer, the head of a volunteer
EMS squad in Israel, traveled to the U.S. and addressed a gathering at the
convention of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. “I saw in my
own eyes a woman who was pregnant, four months pregnant,” he saidOpens in a
new tab
<https://nypost.com/2023/11/01/news/head-of-israels-ems-service-describes-horror-of-seeing-babies-slaughtered-by-hamas/>.
“They came into her house, in front of her kids, they opened up her stomach
took out the baby, and stabbed the little, tiny baby in front of her and
then shot her in front of her family and then they killed the rest of the
kids.”

Beer offered graphic descriptions of other horrors he claimed to have
witnessed. “These bastards put these babies in an oven and put on the oven.
We found the kid a few hours later,” he toldOpens in a new tab
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmXLoFs2LR8&t=0s> the U.S. audience on
October 28. “I saw little kids who were beheaded. We didn’t know which head
belonged to which kid.” Beer, whose stories were widely reportedOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12689829/Palestinian-professor-previously-published-New-York-Times-makes-sick-joke-paramedics-Hamas-burned-baby-oven-without-baking-powder.html>
in the international media, also met withOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/none-of-your-hearts-have-turned-to-stone-biden-lauds-first-responders-to-hamas-onslaught/>
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Israel soon after the attack.

But there is a problem with the gut-wrenching narratives that have
bolstered the underlying justification for the slaughter of Gaza: They are
either complete fabrications or have not been substantiated with a shred of
evidence. Many have been thoroughly disproven by major Israeli media
outlets.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Netanyahu and other Israeli
officials presentedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/showing-explicit-video-of-hamas-crimes-gallant-tells-nato-2023-is-not-1943/>
U.S. and international leaders with a range of graphic images and videos
along with unverified narrative explanations for what they allegedly
depicted. “It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way,” Blinken
saidOpens
in a new tab
<https://www.reuters.com/world/nato-ministers-shown-horrific-video-hamas-attack-2023-10-12/>
after first viewing the photos. “Images are worth a thousand words. These
images may be worth a million.”

In a coup for Netanyahu’s hasbara campaign, Biden and other leaders have
laundered many of Israel’s obscene lies.

In a coup for Netanyahu’s hasbara campaign, Biden and other leaders have
laundered many of Israel’s obscene lies. Beginning just days after October
7, Biden repeatedly
<https://theintercept.com/2023/12/14/israel-biden-beheaded-babies-false/>
claimed that he personally saw photographs of beheaded babies and more
atrocities. Even after the White House admittedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/11/israel-hamas-war-updates-gaza-attack/#link-SIA4LEH6CVAGFEXIJ4556IMXRI>
Biden had seen no such photos, he continued to make the allegation,
including after visiting Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.
“I saw some of the photographs when I was there — tying a mother and her
daughter together on a rope and then pouring kerosene on them and then
burning them, beheading infants, doing things that are just inhuman —
totally, completely inhuman,” Biden saidOpens in a new tab
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/12/12/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-5/>
at a campaign in event in December.

Blinken told the U.S. Senate another harrowing story about how Hamas
terrorists had tortured a family in their living room while intermittently
taking breaks to eat a meal their victims had placed on the dining table
before the horrors began that morning. “A young boy and girl, 6 and 8 years
old, and their parents around the breakfast table. The father’s eye gouged
out in front of his kids. The mother’s breast cut off, the girl’s foot
amputated, the boy’s fingers cut off before they were executed,” Blinken
saidOpens in a new tab <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z_YHdUh-Yg>. “And
then their executioners sat down and had a meal. That is what this society
is dealing with.”

The story Blinken told about terrorists eating a meal while torturing an
Israeli family, as well as some of the assertions about decapitated babies,
was based on the speculative fictionOpens in a new tab
<https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-hamas-gaza-militants-ate-lunch-tortured-mutilated-young-family-2023-10>
invented by Yossi Landau, an official from the scandal-plaguedOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-31/ty-article-magazine/.premium/death-and-donations-did-the-volunteer-group-handling-the-october-7-dead-exploit-its-role/0000018d-5a73-d997-adff-df7bdb670000>
private Israeli rescue organization Zaka, who has repeatedly spreadOpens in
a new tab
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/>
wildly false stories.
[image: BE'ERI, ISRAEL - OCTOBER 22: Members of Army rescue and ZAKA crews
search for bodies and body parts after the Hamas and Palestinians militants
attack on the Kibbutz on October 22, 2023 in Be'eri, Israel. As Israel
prepares to invade the Gaza Strip in its campaign to vanquish Hamas, the
Palestinian militant group that launched a deadly attack in southern Israel
on October 7th, worries are growing of a wider war with multiple fronts,
including at the country's northern border with Lebanon. Countries have
scrambled to evacuate their citizens from Israel, and Israel has begun
relocating residents some communities on its northern border. Meanwhile,
hundreds of thousands of residents of northern Gaza have fled to the
southern part of the territory, following Israel's vow to launch a ground
invasion. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)]

Army rescue and Zaka crews search Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the sites attacked
by Hamas fighters, on Oct. 22, 2023. Members of Zaka, a private Israeli
rescue organization, repeatedly spread disinformation, some of which was
promoted by U.S. officials.
Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images/Getty Images

There was no Holocaust survivorOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-21/ty-article/.premium/army-officer-makes-incorrect-claims-on-oct-7-massacre-idf-well-set-record-straight/0000018d-2c67-daf5-a1bf-ac77f9b50000#:~:text=A%20Kibbutz%20Be%27eri,did%20not%20happen.%22>
killed at Kibbutz Be’eri that day. There were no mass beheadings of babies,
no group executions in a nursery, no children hung from clotheslinesOpens
in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-04/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hamas-committed-documented-atrocities-but-a-few-false-stories-feed-the-deniers/0000018c-34f3-da74-afce-b5fbe24f0000>,
and no infants placed in ovens. No pregnant woman had her stomach cut open
and the fetus knifed in front of her and her other children. These stories
are entirely fictional, a set of audacious lies weaponized to generate the
type of collective rage used to justify the unjustifiable.

According to major Israeli media outletsOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/14-kids-under-10-25-people-over-80-up-to-date-breakdown-of-oct-7-victims-we-know-about/>
that have worked diligently to identifyOpens in a new tab
<https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/rk0bb2xrt> all the victims of the
October 7 attacks, there was one infant killed that day: a 9-month-old
named Mila CohenOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/yona-ohad-mila-cohen-73-43-10-months-three-generations-slain/>
who
was shot dead at Kibbutz Be’eri as her mother held her in her arms. Cohen’s
mother, who was wounded by gunfire, survived. Among the other civilians
killed on October 7, seven of them were between the ages of 2 and 9 years,
and 28 were between the ages of 10 and 19. Fourteen of these children died
in Hamas rocket attacksOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-04/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hamas-committed-documented-atrocities-but-a-few-false-stories-feed-the-deniers/0000018c-34f3-da74-afce-b5fbe24f0000>,
not at the hands of the armed commandos who stormed the kibbutzes.

There is no doubt that widespread atrocities and war crimes were committed
during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7. It is also true that Israeli
military, government, and rescue officials have engaged in a deliberate
misinformation campaign about the nature of many deaths that occurred that
day.

These stories are a set of audacious lies weaponized to generate the type
of collective rage used to justify the unjustifiable.

Israeli officials have toured the world with a film producedOpens in a new
tab <https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/b1pnmg9up> at the direction
of the IDF. The 47-minute “Bearing Witness to the October 7 Massacre”
features video allegedly seized from Palestinian attackers equipped with
GoPro cameras and cellphones, according to Israeli officials. The movie has
not been released to the public and has only been available via special
invitation from the Israeli government. Its audiences have includedOpens in
a new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/arts/screening-footage-israel-hollywood.html>
Hollywood celebrities, dozensOpens in a new tab
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/14/house-members-footage-attack-israel/>
of U.S. lawmakers and government officials, journalists, and global
luminaries; it has screened at various international venues, including
museums established in memory of the Holocaust. While hours of footage of
the attacks and their aftermath are available online, including video shot
by Palestinians who participated in the raids, the Israeli government has
said the footage is too sensitive to be publicly released.

An IDF official, in uniformOpens in a new tab
<https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/gruesome-footage-oct-7-hamas-052757815.html?>,
personally delivers the professionally produced Digital Cinema Package for
the screenings, and viewers are required to sign nondisclosure agreements
affirming they will not record or distribute the footage. “It will change
the way you view the Middle East and the way you view the war in Gaza,”
said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, at the Los
Angeles premiereOpens in a new tab
<https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/hollywood-screening-bearing-witness-hamas-israel-attack-1235642773/>
of the footage last November. The film was characterized in media accounts
as depictingOpens in a new tab
<https://deadline.com/2023/11/footage-october-7-hamas-terror-massacre-shown-in-hollywood-new-york-this-week-bearing-witness-1235593662/>
“murder, beheadings, rapes and other atrocities against Jewish adults and
children.”

The event, at the Museum of Tolerance, was organized by Israeli actor Gal
Gadot, star of the “Wonder Woman” movies, for film executives and other
members of the Hollywood industry. “Hamas must be eradicated. This is the
only way to prevent another massacre,” Erdan added. “If Israel doesn’t
eradicate this evil, mark my words: The West is next.”

While Israel has emphasized how incendiary the footage is, British
journalist Owen Jones, who attendedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5iG3DX7ho> an IDF screening in the U.K.,
said a “significant amount” of the video is already in the public domain.
He said that while there was footage of one IDF soldier who had apparently
been decapitated, as well as the already public footage of an unsuccessful
attempt to behead a migrant Thai worker with a garden tool, there was no
footage substantiating allegations of torture, sexual violence, and mass
beheadings, including of babies or other children. “Clearly this footage
hasn’t been selected at random. You would expect it to be the worst
material that they have,” Jones said. “This isn’t to say none of this
happened, it’s just not in the footage, which has been provided by the
Israeli authorities.”

Israel’s hasbara campaign is reminiscent of the Bush administration’s
monthslong carnival of lies, sanitized and promoted
<https://theintercept.com/2023/03/15/iraq-war-where-are-they-now/> by major
<https://theintercept.com/2023/03/30/new-york-times-iraq-war-error/> media
outlets <https://theintercept.com/2023/03/29/iraq-war-atlantic-david-frum/>,
about alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And Biden directly
participated in President George W. Bush’s campaign as well. In his October
2002 Senate floor speech endorsing war against Iraq, Biden declared that
Saddam HusseinOpens in a new tab
<https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2002-10-10/html/CREC-2002-10-10-pt1-PgS10233-7.htm#:~:text=But%20the%20reason%20he%20poses%20a%20growing%20danger%20to%20the%20United%20States%20and%20its%20%0Aallies%20is%20that%20he%20possesses%20chemical%20and%20biological%20weapons%20and%20is%20%0Aseeking%20nuclear%20weapons>
“possesses chemical and biological weapons and is seeking nuclear weapons.”
[image: TOPSHOT - Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) hugs US
President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on
October 18, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the
Palestinian group Hamas. Biden landed in Israel on October 18, on a
solidarity visit following Hamas attacks that have led to major Israeli
reprisals. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN
SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hugs U.S. President Joe Biden
upon his arrival at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on Oct. 18, 2023.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Allegations of Systematic
Rape

The Israeli propaganda machine is well oiled. Anyone can look back at
Israel’s four-month war against Gaza and trace a pattern: Israel chooses an
issue and demands global attention to its agenda at the expense of any
other matter.

When news organizations began reporting on the civilian toll of Israel’s
initial airstrikes against Gaza, the government accusedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-new-york-times-cnn-reuters-ap-hamas-attack-photos-press-journalist/>
photographers for major news organizations of being Hamas members or
sympathizers who had foreknowledge of the October 7 attacks. Netanyahu said
the journalists were “accomplices in crimes against humanity.” Israel then
portrayed
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/31/gaza-pregnancy-childbirth-health-care/>
Gaza’s hospitals
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/08/gaza-hospitals-babies-doctors-patients/>
as secret Hamas command centers, an allegation that the Biden
administration bolstered as the IDF prepared to lay siege to Al-Shifa
Hospital
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/21/al-shifa-hospital-hamas-israel/>last
November.

Throughout the war, Israel has sought to direct media and global attention
to various new smoking-gun narratives. And in nearly every case, it
succeeds in getting the U.S. on board to launder and promote the talking
points.

In late November, as the civilian death toll
<https://theintercept.com/2023/10/31/gaza-death-palestine-health-ministry/>
in Gaza climbed, Israel was struggling to retain its dominance of the
narrative. Global demands for a ceasefire were mounting, and even some of
Israel’s alliesOpens in a new tab
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/canadian-pm-trudeau-tells-israel-killing-babies-gaza-must-end-2023-11-14/>
were expressing horrorOpens in a new tab
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67356581> at the indiscriminate
killing of women and children and the worsening humanitarian catastrophe.

A weeklong truce, during which captives were exchanged, raised hopesOpens
in a new tab
<https://www.newarab.com/news/arab-nations-say-israel-hamas-truce-should-be-extended>
that a more enduring peace deal could be on the horizon, despite Israeli
insistence that that was out of the question. “A prolonged ceasefire that
allows more hostages to be released, and that evolves towards a permanent
ceasefire linked to a political process, is something we have consensus
on,” saidOpens in a new tab
<https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/11/27/gaza-humanitarian-pause-should-evolve-into-permanent-ceasefire-eu-top-diplomat>
the EU’s top foreign policy official Josep Borrell.

Days earlier, the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium traveled to the
Rafah border to push for such a deal and drew the fury of the Israeli
government when they publicly condemned the indiscriminate killing of
Palestinian civilians. Eli Cohen, then the Israeli foreign minister,
accused the leaders of offering “support [for] terrorism,” while Netanyahu
released a statementOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1728080294735966359> condemning them
because they “did not place total responsibility on Hamas for the crimes
against humanity it perpetrated.”

Anyone can look back at Israel’s four-month war against Gaza and trace a
pattern: Israel chooses an issue and demands global attention to its agenda
at the expense of any other matter.

It was at this moment that the Israeli government decided it needed to
remind the world of Israel’s victimhood and launched a new phase of the
hasbara campaign. It began accusing the international community of standing
silent in the face of what Israeli officials described as a widespread
campaign of rape and sexual violence aimed at Jewish women and orchestrated
by Hamas on October 7. By early December, the issue had become a major
focus of conservative media and Israel’s allies.

“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights
organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible
atrocities, sexual mutilation? Where the hell are you?” Netanyahu saidOpens
in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-biden-slam-global-silence-on-hamas-sexual-violence-against-israeli-women/>
in a December 5 speech in Tel Aviv.

That day, on the other side of the globe, Biden was at a campaign
fundraising event in Boston. “Over the past few weeks, survivors and
witnesses of the attacks have shared the horrific accounts of unimaginable
cruelty: reports of women raped — repeatedly raped and their bodies being
mutilated while still alive, of women corpses being desecrated, and Hamas
terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering as — on women and girls as
possible and then murdering them. And it’s appalling,” Biden saidOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/12/05/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-weston-ma/>.
“The world can’t just look away — what’s going on. It’s on all of us — the
government, international organizations, civil society, individual citizens
— to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without
equivocation — without equivocation, without exception.”

>From the earliest moments following the October 7 attacks, Israel charged
that women had been raped by Hamas fighters, though it was often an
allegation made in sequence alongside other alleged atrocities. But in
mid-November, those assertions began evolving into a sustained public
blitz, accusingOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/Israel/status/1723759157960953981?lang=en> Hamas of
instituting a plan to “systematically rape women.” Israel government
spokesperson Eylon Levy spokeOpens in a new tab
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/stakes-high-as-south-africa-brings-claim-of-genocidal-intent-against-israel>
of a “Hamas rapist machine.”

“Hamas used rape and sexual violence as weapons of war,” chargedOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-biden-slam-global-silence-on-hamas-sexual-violence-against-israeli-women/>
Erdan, the U.N. ambassador. “These were not spur-of-the-moment decisions to
defile and mutilate girls and parade them while onlookers cheered; rather,
this was premeditated.”

To date, there has been no credible evidence presented publicly that such a
campaign took place, and Hamas has vehemently denied that its fighters
committed any acts of rape or sexual assault. The fact that Israel has not
produced forensic evidence for individual rapes does not prove that no such
deeds took place. Rape investigations are often complex, particularly when
the crime occurs amid a chaotic scene of mass violence
<https://theintercept.com/2023/09/27/ukraine-russia-war-crimes-sexual-violence-collaborators/>.
Sexual violence is common in warfare, and it often takes years for the full
story of such crimes to emerge.

But there is a difference between making specific allegations of rape or
sexual assault and charging that organized mass rape was a central
component of an operation meticulously planned over the course of years.
Israel’s evidence of the latter comes nowhere near to measuring up to its
claims.

Israeli rescue workers as well as civilian and military medical officials
have described evidence of dead women who were naked or had clothing
removed, as well as women who were subjected to genital mutilation, though
they have not released documentary or forensic evidence.

But many of the most graphic allegationsOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1752807728387371216> of mass rapes have
been offered by Israeli military or rescue officials who acknowledge they
have no trainingOpens in a new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/world/middleeast/zaka-israel-oct-7.html#:~:text=Mr.%20Landau%20is,using%20rape%20kits.>
or expertise in forensics. Some of them, whose claims have been featured in
many media accounts, also spread false stories about other alleged
atrocities.
[image: NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2023/12/04: Shari Mendes speaks during
special event to address sexual violence during Hamas terror attack on
October 7 held at UN Headquarters. During the event, speakers described
their personal experience seeing women violated during terror attack and
condemned women's advocacy groups, specifically UN Women, to be silent on
this. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)]

Shari Mendes, an IDF reservist originally from New Jersey, speaks at a
conference organized by Israel at the U.N. on Dec. 4, 2023. Mendes has been
one of the most prominent voices alleging widespread sexual violence
occurred on October 7.
Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Shari Mendes, an architect serving in the IDF reserves in a rabbinical
unit, was deployed to a morgue to prepare bodies for burial after the
attacks. An American originally from New Jersey, Mendes did multiple TV and
print interviews about her experiences. “We have seen women who have been
raped, from the age of children through to the elderly,” she toldOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/18/evidence-points-to-systematic-use-of-rape-by-hamas-in-7-october-attacks>
reporters, emphasizingOpens in a new tab
<https://jewishinsider.com/2023/10/israel-hamas-terror-attack-shura-army-base-identifying-the-dead/>,
“This is not just something we saw on the internet, we saw these bodies
with our own eyes.”

For months, Mendes has served as one of the most visible witnesses
bolstering Israel’s allegations of systematic rape. But few media outlets
featuring her claims have mentioned the valid concernsOpens in a new tab
<https://www.oct7factcheck.com/Shari-Mendes-4409ad291a574619a697a232e4f4ed60#7bf65c30921e4358b03ee43d8b0ebf68>
about her credibility and her history of promoting a false story. She toldOpens
in a new tab
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12653435/Israeli-morgue-worker-says-horrors-inflicted-Hamass-victims-worse-Holocaust-including-decapitated-pregnant-woman-beheaded-unborn-child.html>
the Daily Mail last October, “A baby was cut out of a pregnant woman and
beheaded and then the mother was beheaded.”

On December 5, as Israel engaged in a global media push around its
allegations that Hamas had committed mass rapes, Mendes was a featured
speaker at an eventOpens in a new tab
<https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-776654> in New York organized by
Israel’s mission to the U.N. on sexual violence and the October 7 attacks.
The Times of Israel reportedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-war-and-urgent-need-to-id-bodies-evidence-of-hamass-october-7-rapes-slips-away/>
that Mendes “is not legally qualified to determine rape.”

The observations of first responders or members of religious burial units,
particularly those without relevant scientific credentials, are not a
replacement for forensic documentation of an uncontaminated crime scene.
Israeli authorities have said evidence that would typically be taken in
cases of suspected sexual assault was not recovered in the aftermath of the
attacks, attributing this failure to a combination of the magnitude of the
deaths, the charred nature of some bodies, and to Jewish burial practices.

Some of the evidence publicly citedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-28/ty-article/.premium/israel-police-presents-further-evidence-of-sexual-assault-by-hamas-members-on-october-7/0000018c-169e-dd03-a7ff-bebe1bdb0000>
by Israeli officials is testimony provided by Zaka, the private Israeli
rescue organization whose members have been widely documented to have
spread false allegations. Haaretz published an exposéOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-31/ty-article-magazine/.premium/death-and-donations-did-the-volunteer-group-handling-the-october-7-dead-exploit-its-role/0000018d-5a73-d997-adff-df7bdb670000>
documenting Zaka’s role in the rampant mishandling of forensic evidence
that day and its subsequent campaign of misinformation.

The Israeli government has maintained that it possesses evidence that has
not been made public and has enlistedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-28/the-people-investigating-israel-s-biggest-crime-scene/103228512>
international teams of forensic and other crime scene experts. Israel’s
Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs told the New York TimesOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html#:~:text=There%20are%20at,investigators%20or%20reporters.>
there are “at least three women and one man who were sexually assaulted and
survived.”

But other Israeli officials have statedOpens in a new tab
<https://hebrewnews-com.translate.goog/article/57301?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp>
that there are no known living victims of rape that day, while some have
described the challenge of identifying potential victims.

On December 28, the New York Times published what instantly became the most
widely circulated news storyOpens in a new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html>
purporting to document a widespread campaign of sexual violence
orchestrated by Hamas. That story has come under intense scrutinyOpens in a
new tab
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/family-of-key-case-in-new-york-times-october-7-sexual-violence-report-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them/>,
including within the Times newsroom.
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/28/new-york-times-daily-podcast-camera/>

The family of Gal Abdush, whose alleged rape was at the center of the Times
article, disputed the article’s assertion she was raped. One relative also
suggested the family was pressured, under false pretenses, to speak with
the reporters. Abdush’s sister wrote on Instagram that the Times reporters
“mentioned they want to write a report in memory of Gal, and that’s it. If
we knew that the title would be about rape and butchery, we’d never accept
that.” A woman who filmed Abdush on October 7 told YNetOpens in a new tab
<https://www.ynet.co.il/laisha/article/h1gzxtbtp> that Israeli journalists
working for the Times had pressured her into giving the paper access to her
photos and videos. “They called me again and again and explained how
important it is to Israeli hasbara,” she recalledOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/TalulaSha/status/1747763918032773627>.

Critics of the Times story also pointed to the inconsistenciesOpens in a
new tab
<https://speakupeg.com/2023/12/30/nyts-disgraceful-investigation-weaponizing-sexual-violence-against-women-for-occupation-propaganda/>
of the accounts of some of the alleged witnesses featured, as well as to
its use of information provided by members of Zaka.

Several Israelis who survived the October 7 attacks have publicly claimed
that they witnessed rapes by Palestinian assailants, but Israeli
investigators have said they are still searching for supporting evidence.
Authorities also say they must match alleged victims with specific
eyewitness testimony in order to bring potential charges.

What often goes unmentioned in Israel’s sweeping allegations is an
important fact: Hamas was not the only Palestinian group to attack Israelis
on October 7. Many individuals who had no knowledge of Hamas’s plans poured
across the border and committed acts of violence in what has been referred
to as an unplanned “second wave.” Some of these non-HamasOpens in a new tab
<https://www.deccanherald.com/world/hamas-leader-says-not-all-the-israeli-hostages-are-being-held-by-his-group-2734804>
Palestinians also took Israeli hostages back to Gaza.

One survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, a veteran of Israel’s
special forces, has given multiple interviews to major media outlets,
including the New York Times, about a rape he claims to have witnessed.
During an appearance on CNN, Raz Cohen describedOpens in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1743129298112790949?lang=en> the
assailants as “Five guys — five civilians from Gaza, normal guys, not
soldiers, not Nukhba,” referring to Hamas’s elite commando force. “It was
regular people from Gaza with normal clothes.” Cohen, it must be noted, has
told varying, sometimes contradictory, versions of what he witnessed.

Israel has painted all actions on October 7 as being committed by Hamas and
its fighters. That storyline obviously serves Israel’s military and
political objectives, but the truth is more complicated.

In light of Israel’s well-documented campaign of lies and misinformation
about other events on October 7, incendiary allegations, such as claims
that Hamas engaged in a deliberate campaign of systematic rape, should be
viewed with extreme skepticism.
[image: In this picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli
military on October 22, 2023, the international press film the Israeli army
spokesperson during a press visit to Kibbutz Beeri along the border with
the Gaza Strip, in the aftermath of a Palestinian militant attack on
October 7. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty
Images)]

Members of the media go on a press tour organized by the Israeli military
on Oct. 22, 2023, at Kibbutz Be’eri, which was targeted by Hamas during the
October 7 attacks. Witnesses said that an Israeli tank fired on a house
filled with Israeli civilians held hostage on October 7.
Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images Friendly Fire

As many U.S. media outlets and politicians have promoted and laundered
Israel’s claims, spreading them far and wide, there have been strong voices
among the Israeli public and media that have exhibited skepticism. This is
especially true regarding the actions taken by Israeli forces as they
responded to the October 7 attacks. Calls are growing inside Israel, led by
survivors and victims’ families, for the Israeli government to provide a
factual explanation of precisely how their loved ones died: Were they
killed by Palestinian militants or by the Israeli military?

Israeli media outlets have aired interviews with survivors and IDF
personnel describingOpens in a new tab
<https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2023/11/21/friendly-fire-incidents-killed-idf-soldiers-and-civilians/>
what they refer to as “friendly fire” incidentsOpens in a new tab
<https://www.the7eye.org.il/503392>, including the shelling of a house
where Hamas commandos were holding Israeli civilians hostage. Families of
some Israelis killed at Kibbutz Be’eri have citedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-06/ty-article/.premium/idf-probing-death-of-12-hostages-in-beeri-house-shelled-on-orders-of-senior-officer/0000018d-7b6c-d008-a9cd-fbfdb0040000>
witnesses who said that an Israeli tank fired on a house filled with
Israeli civilians held hostage on October 7. A dozen hostages, including
12-year-old twins, died inside the house after Israeli forces began
shelling it.

“According to the evidence, the shooting of the tank was fatal and killed
many hostages in addition to the terrorists,” the families wroteOpens in a
new tab in a January 4 letter to the IDF’s chief of staff. Given the
“seriousness of the incident, we do not think it is right to wait with the
investigation until after the end of the war.” They demanded a
“comprehensive and transparent investigation into the decisions and actions
that led to this tragic outcome.” Israeli military Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram
has since admitted he ordered the shelling that day. “The negotiations are
over,” he recalledOpens in a new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/22/world/europe/beeri-massacre.html>
saying. “Break in, even at the cost of civilian casualties.”

Yasmin Porat, who had escaped the horrors at the Nova music festival and
sought refuge in a home at Be’eri, offered extensive detailsOpens in a new
tab
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861#transcript:~:text=Transcript%20of%20the%20Kan%20interview%20with%20Yasmin%20Porat>
on this incident. In a seriesOpens in a new tab
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231021-israel-settler-israel-forces-killed-hostages-not-hamas/>
of interviews on Israeli media, Porat described how Palestinian commandos
entered the home and told the Israeli civilians they intended to take them
hostage and, after moving them to a location with other hostages at the
kibbutz, ultimately used their Israeli captives to contact the police to
negotiate. “Their objective was to kidnap us to Gaza. Not to murder us,”
she told Israeli network Kan News. “And after we were there for two hours
with the abductors, the police arrive. A gun battle takes place that our
police started.”

Porat, who said her captors “treated us very humanely,” described how she
managed to escape the house by convincing one of the gunmen to exit with
her. After using her as a “human shield” to exit the house, the Palestinian
was taken into custody, and Porat remained on the scene as Israeli forces
laid siege to the house. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages.
There was very, very heavy crossfire,” she said. “Everyone was killed
there. Just horrible.”

Other witnesses at Be’eri have describedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2023-10-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/0000018b-499a-dc3c-a5df-ddbaab290000>
how Israeli forces were able to retake the kibbutz from Palestinian
fighters only after the IDF shelled houses where hostages were being held.

There is also evidenceOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-18/ty-article/.premium/israeli-security-establishment-hamas-likely-didnt-have-prior-knowledge-of-nova-festival/0000018b-e2ee-d168-a3ef-f7fe8ca20000#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20police%20source%2C%20the%20investigation%20also%20indicates%20that%20an%20IDF%20combat%20helicopter%20that%20arrived%20to%20the%20scene%20and%20fired%20at%20terrorists%20there%20apparently%20also%20hit%20some%20festival%20participants.>
indicating that Israeli forces responding to the attacks at the Nova music
festival, where 364 people died, may have killed Israeli civilians as they
attacked Palestinian militants, including with munitions fired from Apache
helicopters. Yedioth Ahronoth and other major Israeli media outlets have
published reports detailing the massive fire from combat helicopters and
drones unleashed against the gunmen who violently stormed the festival.
Military sources describedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/b111niukzt> the difficulty in
distinguishing civilians from attackers, particularly in the early phases
of the Israeli counterstrike.

In the most sweeping journalistic account to date of the events surrounding
the Israeli military’s operations on October 7, Ronen Bergman and Yoav
Zitun — two well-connected and prominent Israeli journalists —wroteOpens in
a new tab
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-hq-ordered-troops-shoot-israeli-captives-7-october#translation>
about the state of chaos and panic within the security establishment. They
described “a command chain that failed almost entirely and was entirely
blindsided; orders to open fire on terrorist vehicles speeding towards Gaza
even as there was a concern that they contained captives — some sort of
renewed version of the Hannibal Directive.”

The Hannibal Directive, which dates back to 1986 and has been the subject
of great controversy in Israel, authorized military forces to stop the
kidnapping of Israeli soldiers at all costs, even if it meant shooting or
injuring the captives. In a 2003 investigationOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/2003-05-21/ty-article/the-hannibal-procedure/0000017f-dbb8-db22-a17f-ffb9aba40000>,
the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the broadly held understanding of
the directive: “From the point of view of the army, a dead soldier is
better than a captive soldier who himself suffers and forces the state to
release thousands of captives in order to obtain his release.”

The Hannibal Directive was allegedly rescindedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-06-28/ty-article/.premium/idf-chief-orders-to-revoke-controversial-hannibal-directive/0000017f-e15f-d804-ad7f-f1ff16e00000>
in 2016. But Bergman and Zitun report that by midday on October 7, the IDF
issued a similar order, instructing all units to stop Hamas from bringing
hostages back to Gaza and to do so “at any cost.” They describe Israeli
helicopter gunships, drones, and tanks firing on any and all cars en route
to Gaza, burning them and in some cases killing everyone inside the
vehicles. Haaretz reportedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article/.premium/underprepared-and-overconfident-israel-failed-to-spot-the-signs-of-impending-disaster/0000018b-4976-d03a-afcb-697edb020000#:~:text=Brig.%20Gen.%20Rosenfeld,repulse%20the%20terrorists.>
on an IDF commander, locked in a subterranean bunker, calling in a strike
against his own bases “in order to repulse the terrorists.”

The truth is that we do not know how many of their own people Israeli
forces killed during the counteroffensive on October 7. Nor do we know what
happened in the firefightsOpens in a new tab
<https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-attack-kibbutz-survived-4057fb1f>
when armed Israelis, including kibbutz private security and military
personnel, sought to defend their settlements.

How many Israelis — soldiers and civilians — were killed in the chaos and
had their deaths recorded as killed or sadistically burned alive by Hamas?

Beyond the deadly shelling of the house at Be’eri, the public has been
given very few details of what exactly transpired when official Israeli
military forces deployed to confront the commandos from Gaza. Israeli
military and police forces engaged in prolonged standoffs and shootouts
with Palestinian gunmen holed up in houses, police stations, military
installations, and other buildings, often holding hostages. In some cases,
these battles went on for days.

In November, Netanyahu senior adviser Mark Regev was asked by MSNBC host
Mehdi Hasan about some of the lies told by Israeli officials and soldiers
about the events of October 7. Regev remarked that when a claim has been
proven false, Israel retracts or clarifies it. “We originally said, in the
atrocious Hamas attack upon our people on October 7, we had the number at
1,400 casualties and now we’ve revised that down to 1,200 because we
understood that we’d overestimated, we made a mistake,” Regev saidOpens in
a new tab <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD-yRuTasHU>. He then added:
“There were actually bodies that were so badly burnt we thought they were
ours; in the end, apparently they were Hamas terrorists.”

Israel’s social security agency has stated that the death toll from October
7 is 1,139 people. It has identified 695 Israeli civilians killed that day,
along with 71 foreigners, most of whom were migrant laborers. Some 373
members of Israeli military and security forces were reportedOpens in a new
tab
<https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231215-israel-social-security-data-reveals-true-picture-of-oct-7-deaths>
dead.

Israel has estimated that between 1,000 and 1,500 Palestinian fighters were
killed that day, many of them during assaults launched with advanced
weapons fired from tanks, helicopters, and drones. How many Israelis —
soldiers and civilians — were killed in the chaos and had their deaths
recorded as killed or sadistically burned alive by Hamas? How many Israeli
lives were sacrificed under Hannibal-style orders to prevent them from
being taken hostage at all costs?

The answers to these questions will bring no absolution to those who
initiated the carnage on October 7. No civilians would have died in those
Israeli communities had Hamas not launched its operations. It is also true
that if Israel had not engaged in a 75-year campaign
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/22/intercepted-podcast-palestine-rashid-khalidi/>
of ethnic cleansing
<https://theintercept.com/2023/12/13/intercepted-podcast-israel-palestine-military-equipment/>
and apartheid
<https://theintercept.com/2023/04/01/israel-palestine-apartheid-settlements/>,
there would not have been an October 7. The illusion promoted by the
Israeli state that its people could live a bucolic life in the “Gaza
envelope” while their government enforced the caging and repression of 2.3
million Palestinians next door was shattered.

The families of the dead deserve to have answers. The specifics of what
happened that day also matter because of how these events have shaped the
public attitude toward Israel’s war, with its horrifying death toll,
particularly among Palestinian children.
[image: GAZA CITY, GAZA - FEBRUARY 6: Many Palestinian families take refuge
under harsh conditions at a school affiliated to the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) at the Daraj neighborhood
as the Israeli attacks continue in Gaza City, Gaza on February 6, 2024.
(Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)]

Many Palestinian families take refuge under harsh conditions at a school
affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees, or UNRWA, in the Daraj neighborhood as the Israeli attacks
continue in Gaza City, Gaza, on Feb. 6, 2024.
Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images Faulty Justifications

Cynical manipulation of the truth has been a hallmark of Netanyahu’s
career. He has long advocated for Hamas
<https://theintercept.com/2023/10/14/hamas-israel-palestinian-authority/>
to achieve and maintain power in Gaza precisely because he believed it was
the single best path to achieving his own colonial agenda.

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to
support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu toldOpens
in a new tab
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-09/ty-article/.premium/another-concept-implodes-israel-cant-be-managed-by-a-criminal-defendant/0000018b-1382-d2fc-a59f-d39b5dbf0000>
his
Likud confederates in 2019. The logic was clear: The world will never give
the Palestinians a state while Hamas remains in power. That’s why, since at
least 2012, Netanyahu has facilitated the continued flow of moneyOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html>
to Hamas.

By January 18, with the horrors in Gaza intensifying, U.S. and European
diplomats were telling anyone who would listen that they were deep into
planning for a “day after” scenario that would pave the way for a two-state
solution. Netanyahu responded to this chatter by giving a televised speech
in Hebrew. “I clarify that in any arrangement in the foreseeable future,
with an accord or without an accord, Israel must have security control over
the entire territory west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu saidOpens in a
new tab
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-says-no-way-solve-israel-security-gaza-war-without-palestinian-state-2024-01-18/>.
“That’s a necessary condition. It clashes with the principle of sovereignty
but what can you do?”

While it was reported as a defiant rebuke of his U.S. and European allies,
there was nothing new in Netanyahu’s position. It has been the Likud
party’s official stance since its 1977 charter. “Between the Sea and the
Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty,” the documentOpens in a new
tab
<https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party>
reads. “A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines
our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a
‘Palestinian State,’ jeopardizes the security of the Jewish population,
endangers the existence of the State of Israel, and frustrates any prospect
of peace.”

The hospitals are Hamas, the U.N. is Hamas, journalists are Hamas, European
allies are Hamas, the International Court of Justice is antisemitic.

The lies that were spread in the immediate aftermath of the October 7
attacks did not end there. Nearly every week, sometimes every day, the
Israeli government and military have unloaded a fresh barrage of
allegations intended to justify the ongoing slaughter. The hospitals are
Hamas, the U.N. is Hamas, journalists are Hamas, European allies are Hamas,
the International Court of Justice is antisemitic. The tactic is effective,
particularly because the U.S. and other major allies have consistently
laundered Israel’s unverified allegations as evidence of the righteousness
of the cause.
[image: NORTHERN GAZA, GAZA - DECEMBER 15: Head of the IDF spokesperson
Unit, Daniel Hagari, stands at the opening to a tunnel near the border with
Israel on December 15, 2023, northern Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces
say this is the largest tunnel they've found yet in Gaza, comprising
branches that extend well over four kilometers (2.5 miles) and reaches 400
meters (1,310 feet) from the Erez crossing. The IDF alleges the project of
building the tunnel was led by Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Hamas leader
Yahya Sinwar and was used as part of the Oct. 7 attack, funnelling fighters
near the Erez crossing and Israeli border communities. As the IDF have
pressed into Gaza as part of their campaign to defeat Hamas, they have
highlighted the militant group's extensive tunnel network as emblematic of
the way the group embeds itself and its military activity in civilian
areas. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)]

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari, pictured in northern Gaza
on Dec. 15, 2023, is a daily fixture in Israel’s propaganda campaign.
Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images

The latest example is Israel’s campaign to destroy UNRWA, the single most
important humanitarian organization in Gaza, which was established in 1949
specifically to protect Palestinians violently expelled from their homes
and land by the creation of the Israeli state. Almost immediately after
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/29/unrwa-funding-genocide-israel/> the ICJ
ruled against Israel
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/26/icj-ruling-gaza-genocide/> in the
genocide case brought by South Africa
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/12/icj-israel-genocide/> in The Hague,
Israel accused 12 of the organization’s 30,000 employees of participating
in the October 7 attacks.

Israel then presentedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-involved-in-oct-7-attacks-intelligence-reports-say-a7de8f36>
the U.S. and other governments with “intelligence” it claimed to have
obtained from the interrogations of Palestinian captives, documents
recovered from the bodies of dead Palestinians, seized cellphones, and
signals intercepts. Israel charged that 10 percent of UNRWA’s 12,000-person
local staff in Gaza had some form of “links” to Hamas. “The institution as
a whole is a haven for Hamas’ radical ideology,” an anonymous senior
Israeli official told the Wall Street Journal in a widely cited article
penned by a former IDFOpens in a new tab
<https://x.com/jeremyscahill/status/1752702933848993908?s=20> soldierOpens
in a new tab
<https://twitter.com/jeremyscahill/status/1752702933848993908?s=20>.

The innuendo-laced allegation of UNRWA staff having undefined “links” to
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, or “close relatives” who belong to the groups is a
risible charge given that Hamas is not just an armed militia, but also the
governing civil authority in Gaza.

The U.S. responded to Israel’s allegations by immediately announcing it was
suspendingOpens in a new tab
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/27/world/middleeast/pause-funding-gaza-unrwa.html>
all funding to UNRWA. “We haven’t had the ability to investigate [the
allegations] ourselves,” Blinken admittedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/blinken-says-evidence-of-unrwa-staffers-oct-7-involvement-highly-highly-credible/>
on January 30. Nonetheless, he declared: “They are highly, highly credible.”

But journalists from Sky News reviewed the so-called dossier and reportedOpens
in a new tab
<https://news.sky.com/story/israeli-intelligence-report-claims-four-unrwa-staff-in-gaza-involved-in-hamas-kidnappings-13059967>,
“The Israeli intelligence documents make several claims that Sky News has
not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not directly
implicate UNRWA.” Britain’s Channel 4 also obtained the document and
determinedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.channel4.com/news/israels-evidence-of-unrwa-hamas-allegations-examined>
it “provides no evidence to support its explosive new claim that UNRWA
staff were involved with terror attacks on Israel.” The Financial Times,
which also reviewed the materials, reportedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.ft.com/content/bb8fc310-d359-4a31-b8e3-11a433b935f5> there
were specific allegations of direct participation in the October 7 attacks
against four Palestinians employed by UNRWA, not 12 as originally asserted.

This was a transparent attempt by Israel to distract from the rulings in
the ICJ genocide case and to obliterate a U.N. agency that Israel has long
viewedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/1/31/israels-allegations-unrwa-effort-eliminate-agency>
as an impediment to its goal of denying Palestinians the right to return to
the homes and territory from which Israel expelled them. It was also an
action that explicitly violated the orders issued by the world court, which
directed Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the
provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
Based on Israel’s sweeping and unverified allegations alone, the U.S. led
scores of Western nations to denounce the U.N. agency and pull their
funding at the moment it is needed most.

>From weapons and intelligence to political, diplomatic, and legal support,
Israel has wanted for nothing from the Biden administration. The mounting
pile of Palestinian civilian corpses
<https://theintercept.com/2024/02/02/israel-gaza-icj-palestinian-deaths>
and their surviving family members, meanwhile, are relegated to the
workshopped afterthoughts uttered by Western politicians who have been told
they should occasionally squeeze a line or two into their speeches about
death and suffering in Gaza.

Propaganda and weaponized lies can only obscure the dead bodies, the forced
starvation, the mass killing of children, and the utter destruction of an
entire society for so long. Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to
conceal the nexus between the actions taken by Israel after October 7, the
mendacious narratives it deployed, and Netanyahu’s desperate struggle to
retain political power and his personal liberty. The 1,200 Israeli and
international victims of October 7, and the more than 27,000 Palestinians
whose deaths were justified in their names, deserve an unvarnished
rendering of the truth.
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