U.S. and international media outlets are repeating unsubstantiated claims that Palestinian fighters “beheaded” babies. These unverified assertions aren’t just sloppy journalism — they are being used to justify a massacre.
One story has been dominating the U.S. and international media cycle for the past 24 hours. It has been repeated by pro-Israel activists, Israeli government officials, reporters, and anchors throughout the U.S. media and even alluded to by the President. The thing is — this story has not been confirmed in any way. It appears to come from a single source with a history of espousing calls for genocidal violence against Palestinians.
You have probably heard the story that Hamas fighters beheaded 40 Israeli children in the Kfar Aza community near Gaza. This story can be traced back to an article by Bel Trew, a reporter for The Independent. Trew entered Kfar Aza on October 10, soon after the Israeli army, and reported on Twitter that gunfire erupted just as they arrived. She is told by a member of the Israeli military that children were beheaded, but the article notes, “The Independent did not see evidence of this.”
The military source of this claim is Major David Ben Zion. According to his Twitter bio, he is the Deputy Head of the settler leadership organization, the Samaria Regional Council, and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Fund for Israel, a quasi-governmental agency used to acquire land in Palestine that is then made available exclusively for use by the Israeli state.
In this video clip, Ben Zion speaks directly to the camera. He says the soldiers found children with their heads cut off. He is incorrectly named on-screen in the video but is correctly named in the description below the video on YouTube.
In addition to his role in settler leadership, Ben Zion has a history of calls to genocidal violence.
Earlier this year, Israeli settlers carried out a so-called “reprisal attack” on the Palestinian village of Huwwara after an unknown Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli settlers. As we reported at the time, Israeli settlers launched a ‘pogrom’ on the night of February 26, attacking Palestinian homes and property in Huwwara, Burin, and across the Nablus area, burning houses, cars, vandalizing property, and assaulting Palestinians.
archive: https://archive.ph/AUb6K
Just a reminder that the last time we heard stories about people murdering innocent babies, it was complete bullshit. Keep your grains of salt handy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
"In her testimony, Nayirah claimed that after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital, remove the incubators and leave the babies to die.
Her story was initially corroborated by Amnesty International, a British-based global NGO, which published a report about the supposed killings[3] and testimony from evacuees. Following the liberation of Kuwait, reporters were given access to the country. An ABC report found that “patients, including premature babies, did die, when many of Kuwait’s nurses and doctors … fled” but Iraqi troops “almost certainly had not stolen hospital incubators and left hundreds of Kuwaiti babies to die.”[4] Amnesty International USA reacted by issuing a correction, with executive director John Healey subsequently accusing the Bush administration of “opportunistic manipulation of the international human rights movement”.[5]"
Edit This mass beheading story also now appears to be bullshit:
“Israeli official says government cannot confirm babies were beheaded in Hamas attack”
Source:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/israel-hamas-beheading-claims-intl/index.html
"CNN has pored through hundreds of hours of media posted online attempting to corroborate accounts of atrocities committed by Hamas. In one video, which CNN determined to be authentic but has not been able to geolocate, an assailant attacks an injured man with a garden tool in an attempt to behead him. But CNN has not seen anything that would appear to confirm the claims of decapitated children.
CNN also visited the ransacked ruins of Kfar Aza on Tuesday and saw no evidence of beheaded youths. Israeli officials have not released any photographs of the incident either."
Yes, that Kuwaiti story came to mind when I read the story about 40 children in a community of 160 people.
I mean, the math does work out… 160 people minus 40 kids = 120 adults or 60 couples.
40 kids on 60 couples seems very plausible.
Also if people gave a shit to read the claim was 40 kids dead SOME beheaded.
Uh, the last time we heard this it was the Russians in Ukraine and the ICC finds those claims credible enough to investigate.
All the claims should be investigated, we shouldn’t take them at face value
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Well, Israel is a country thats kind of in a war and that is where the most propaganda gets spread. But if anyone “controls the media” it would be the big and powerful countries which in the “western world” is mostly just the USA and a bit of stuff from Russia. Since Irael is allied to the US it profits from their propaganda machinery.
Yeah no. That’s antisemitic bullshit you see literal Nazis spout off about.
This recent “story” was only posted in a shitty tabloid, picked up by a couple other shitty tabloids, and gullible people spread it all over social media.
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If you’re trusting Indian media regarding Muslims then it’s already too late for you
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Who cares? Facts are so last century. Who tells the best lie the loudest wins. Isn’t that what you all wanted when you started rewarding media with clicks for the most rage-inducing bullshit instead of paying to actually get informed?
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The guy was called Ben ZION? That sounds like bad fiction.
Edit: I know this name is propably very common in Israel.
It means “Son of Zion” so…
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When Haaretz starts walking back accusations against the Palestinians, then you know they have to be bullshit.
Bothsides people aren’t going to care if this is real or not. They’ve already decided which side they’re on, everything else is a means to an end.
Dude… Have some faith in the ability for critical thought? Most people are idiots, but the truth really matters to the rest.
Every time I open up my message notifications, any hope I have of good faith on this website is reset to zero.
I wake up and check my notifications and half of them are removed and I check the modlogs to see, for good reason.
Hang in there. Critical thought, measured skepticism, and a desire to learn and understand before speaking, are all very quiet compared to what you encounter on public forums. Doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
It doesn’t really matter if this is real or not.
Hamas killed over a thousand Israelis, Israel doesn’t need any other justification.
Israel doesn’t need any other justification.
Justification to do what, exactly?
Kill thousands of civilians in Gaza?
Well they’ve never needed justification before…
what about ism
It’s not just whataboutism because they said the word “what”.
Both are barbaric, retaliation after retaliation. What do you call the deadly oppression Israel has been inflicting on the Palestinian people for decades?
Both sides launch missiles at civilians. It’s a complete mess, and peace can’t be seen on the horizon anymore.
I don’t want to compare the death toll on both sides because it doesn’t determine who’s right and who’s wrong. BUT you can easily see that the Palestinians have suffered a much higher number of civilian casualties, go figure what happened on 2014. Just last couple years thousands Palestinian civilian dead, and hundreds of Israeli dead. Go see UN statistics for this.
War is horrible.
And no one anywhere was (should have been) surprised.
Like the settlers who were kicking palestinians from their homes and literally taking possession of these houses? 109 and it was never your fault?
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No you see, those weren’t beheaded toddlers. Those were insurgents with dwarfism that took their own lives after being humanely arrested. ( /s just in case)
They didn’t behead babies!
They only use their own citizens as human shields and parade tourists around like war spoils before killing them. Such shining examples of humanity Hamas is.
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so the video of hamas spitting on that tattoo artist girl they beat up is from runwayML? she still alive? wanna hear what she says.
who but total bastards attacks an international music festival?
at least tensions will end really soon when gaza is wiped. maybe a new start for everyone on both sides…if you survive.
funniest shit here is the whataboutism all the time.
The fact that it was believable says something
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Is that just me or does anyone else not believe stuff like this any more in general? I mean “they are killing babies/kittens/puppies/…” kind of arguments or “We need to violate these basic human rights because of child abuse/rapists/terrorists/…” kind of arguments in political discussions.
Classic dehumanization playbook
Hamas just killed a massive number of civilians. How is it unbelievable that they might layer another bit of brutality on top of that?
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Okay, first, there’s a critical distinguishing factor: Israel is acting with disregard to the lives of civilians. Hamas specifically targeted civilians. I’m sure there are some soldiers that would absolutely do that if given the chance, but the IDF seems to be more interested in long range strikes where this particular action just isn’t possible.
Second, I’m not necessarily saying that Hamas did this particular act. I’m still hearing conflicting reports. But when you’ve already descended into the depravity of killing babies and other civilians then what’s a little more depravity? The claim should be approached with some skepticism, but given everything I know to be true I in turn don’t find it unbelievable that they did it.
This disinformation is old, friend. The images of the dead babies are out.
“Israeli official says government cannot confirm babies were beheaded in Hamas attack”
Source:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/israel-hamas-beheading-claims-intl/index.html
"CNN has pored through hundreds of hours of media posted online attempting to corroborate accounts of atrocities committed by Hamas. In one video, which CNN determined to be authentic but has not been able to geolocate, an assailant attacks an injured man with a garden tool in an attempt to behead him. But CNN has not seen anything that would appear to confirm the claims of decapitated children.
CNN also visited the ransacked ruins of Kfar Aza on Tuesday and saw no evidence of beheaded youths. Israeli officials have not released any photographs of the incident either."
