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
In multiple cases there is video footage, you can find it online if you look.
Ok? I'm saying that we these stories should be investigated for the sake of accuracy and disinformation fighting. Nothing else.
If there are lives on the line and someone says tomorrow is Wednesday we should make sure for the sake of those lives.
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.