<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-inner-article-top"><h1 class="gmail-">Israel stages fake Hamas surrender with abducted Palestinian civilians</h1><p class="gmail-">Israel
wants to show Hamas losing control of its forces even as news of large
casualties among Israeli forces in Gaza are finally emerging </p><div class="gmail-another-name"><p><font size="1"><a href="https://new.thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9" style="color:rgb(164,4,4)">News Desk</a> - <a href="https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israel-stages-fake-hamas-surrender-with-abducted-palestinian-civilians">https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israel-stages-fake-hamas-surrender-with-abducted-palestinian-civilians</a></font></p></div><div class="gmail-another-name" style="margin-top:16px"><p><span>DEC 10, 2023</span></p></div></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-img"><img src="http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/ee545d96-976e-11ee-8131-00163e02c055.jpeg" alt="" width="440" height="248" style="margin-right: 0px;"><span>A
Palestinian man with his hands up holding an assault rifle after
surrendering to troops in northern Gaza's Jabaliya, on December 9, 2023.
(Photo credit: Times of Israel/Social media: used in accordance with
Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)</span></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-content"><div class="gmail-row"><div class="gmail-col-md-8 gmail-col-sm-7"><div class="gmail-article-content"><span><p>Israeli
forces have staged a video claiming to show Hamas members surrendering
in Gaza, in an apparent bid to claim the Hamas leadership is losing
control of its fighters.</p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">Israeli
forces abducted dozens of Gaza men from the market street in Beit Lahia
in northern Gaza on 7 December. The men were forced to strip off their
clothes and sit in rows on the street. They were then searched and
humiliated before they were taken in trucks to an unknown location.</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">Israel
claimed the men were Hamas fighters who surrendered and released
footage showing one of the nearly naked men walking toward the soldiers
with a Kalashnikov rifle above his head. He then lays the rifle down on
the pavement before returning to the large group of captured men.</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">In the video, the man is holding the rifle in his left hand above his head.</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">But
another video emerged showing the same scene, but this time, the man is
holding the rifle in his right hand, showing the scene was recorded
multiple times. This suggests Israeli forces staged a fake Hamas
surrender using captured Palestinian civilians.</span></p><div class="gmail-twitter-tweet gmail-twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display:flex;max-width:550px;width:100%;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px"></div> <p>The man shown surrendering with the gun was later identified as <span style="color:rgb(15,20,25)">Munir Qeshta al-Masry. He is the owner of an aluminum shop in Beit Lahia and has no connection to the Hamas movement.</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">Many of the other captured men shown in the footage have also been identified as civilians, </span><a href="https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israeli-forces-strip-abduct-dozens-of-palestinian-men"><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">including</span></a><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)"> <i>Al-Araby Al-Jadeed</i> reporter Diaa al-Kahlout along with his brothers and other relatives.</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">The outlet lost contact with Kahlout on Thursday afternoon before his family informed them of his abduction.</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">Kahlout's
sister said her brother was forced at gunpoint to leave his disabled
seven-year-old daughter. She added that the men were taken away,
stripped and beaten by Israeli forces.</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">When
the video was first released, Israeli army Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel
Hagari claimed that after their surrender, the alleged Hamas fighters
complained during interrogation “that the Hamas leadership is
disconnected from the tough situation they are in on the ground."</span></p><div class="gmail-twitter-tweet gmail-twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display:flex;max-width:550px;width:100%;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px"></div> <p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">Member of Hamas' Political Bureau Izzat al-Rishq responded in a statement, saying:</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">“Al-Qassam
heroes do not surrender, and the occupation’s lies do not deceive
anyone The Zionist terrorist occupation’s display of pictures and scenes
of defenseless civilians in Gaza, after detaining them and placing
weapons next to them, is nothing but one of the chapters of an open and
ridiculous play, which the occupation has always fabricated in order to
create an alleged victory over the resistance men.”</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">The
staged surrender video comes as the Israeli media has begun to
recognize the Israeli army’s significant losses during its ground
campaign in Gaza. </span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">Despite its
success in killing large numbers of Palestinian civilians in
airstrikes. the Israeli army has registered at least 5,000 wounded among
its ranks, including 2,000 troops who have been left “disabled” during
the two-month-long ethnic cleansing campaign of Gaza.“Israel has never
witnessed an event like this before in terms of the number of injured
people,” the head of the Rehabilitation Department at the Israeli
Ministry of Defense, Limor Luria, told Hebrew daily</span><a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/health/article/yokra13707397"><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)"><i> Yedioth Ahronoth</i></span></a><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)"><i> </i>on
9 December. She added that “58 percent of the soldiers have limb
injuries, as they were subjected to the amputation of a leg or arm.”The
Israeli army claims only </span><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-announces-deaths-of-two-reserves-soldiers-bringing-gaza-ground-op-toll-to-91/"><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">91 soldiers</span></a><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)"> have
been killed by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza since the start of
the war on 7 October, casting doubt on whether the actual death toll is
being </span><a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israeli-director-of-military-cemetery-reveals-shocking-numbers-of-israeli-soldiers-killed-in-gaza/"><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)">kept secret</span></a><span style="color:rgb(25,25,25)"> as the Al-Qassam Brigades has documented the daily destruction of Israeli vehicles and squadrons for the past two months.</span></p></span></div></div></div></div>
</div>