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Fakes of the war of Israel and Palestine
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The war in the Middle East, which began on October 7, also inevitably became an information war. In it, both sides use fakes and misinformation. Although international media are well cope with the work on their exposure, the Internet is full of manipulations and propaganda about the events of October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Editor
Editor
Ivan RazgulovIllustrator
Illustrator
Vitya ErshovPublication
January 30, 2024
Since the beginning of the war, the media space was crowded with terrible descriptions of crimes committed by Hamas in the south of Israel. The scale of violence on October 7 was shocking: 1,200 killed, the majority were unarmed civilians; 240 people were captured. The Khamasovites inflicted injuries to the victims, tortured, committed sexualized violence, burned houses with families inside.
But some of the most sensational crimes of that day turned out to be falsifications. This was the reason for the conspiracy theories that the attack on October 7 was organized by Israel. Journalist: Ki from Haaretz Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper founded in 1918, which makes it the oldest newspaper published in Israel. She goes to Hebrew and English. As of 2022, it takes third place in circulation in Israel. The Haaretz newspaper adheres to widely liberal views both in internal and international affairs. We conducted a thorough investigation and presented convincing refutations of several myths.
Caution, below - a description of cruel violence.
The attack on October 7th
40 decapitated babies
The source of this fake is one of the commander of the IDF, who informed the reporter I24 News that among the dead were decapitated babies. The reporter handed over the military on Twitter: " 40 children were killed ." The statement about the "40 killed babies" spread widely in the media . In addition, the I24 NEWS channel referred to the employment: Cu ZA.
ZAL is a public organization of ultra-orthodox Jew: K, which helps the Israeli police and a rescuer: to identify the bodies of victims of disasters and terrorist attacks. Zak was often criticized for work without proper state supervision and non -compliance with procedures. For example, her work: TSY does not undergo the basic training of volunteer: K. In recent years, Zak has completely become the center of scandals about corruption and violence. Its founder of Jehuda Meshi-Zhav wasaccused of sexualized violence against children and women for decades. The senior managers of Zak tried to shut up these accusations.
Applications about “dozens of decapitated babies”, “burned babies” or “hanged babies” sounded from the official channels of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the terrorists grabbed dozens of children, tied and set them on fire.
Journalist: Ki Haaretz studied the cross data of several sources: the Israeli National Insurance Institute, the head: NIC Kibbutsev and the police. It turned out that on October 7, one baby was killed -a 10-month Mila Cohen. The terrorists also fired in the stomach of the pregnant Beduinka, who was traveling on the morning of October 7 to the hospital in the south of Israel. Doctors: neither took birth, but could not save the child. According to the Institute of National Insurance, on that day, five more children aged two to six years were killed. There is no evidence that children from different families were killed together, although related bodies of adults were found .
Two IDF officers also distributed information about the "hanged babies" and "eight burned babies." The department of the spokesman DSACal gave a comment on Haaretz. According to him, in the first case, the officer will explain that he should not describe the events whose details are “unclear and unofficial”. About the second case, the IDF explained that the officer described the children's bodies found by the English word Babies (“babies”), and the error was not attacked.
Nevertheless, Hamas terrorists really desecrated corpses during the massacre, especially the body of the soldiers: approx. There were also cases of decapitation and dismemberment of adults.
The body of a pregnant woman with a cut belly
This story was distributed by the employee of Zak. He claimed that he had seen a pregnant woman lying near the house number 426 in the Kibeli Beeri. According to him, her stomach was cut, and her fruit was lying nearby, stabbed, still connected to her mother's umbilical cord. But only two elderly families lived in that house, who knew nothing about a pregnant woman. The kibbutz states that the story " is not related to Beeri ." This was confirmed by the police and a pathologist who examined the bodies.
The same employee of Zak claimed that he saw 20 alive children from Kibbutz Beeri, lying next to his tied hands. But this description does not correspond to the list of the dead. Nine minors were killed in Beeri; At least some of them were killed at home, with their parents. It is impossible that all 20 bodies were in one place.
A child found in the oven
The story of a child who was burned alive in the oven was said by the president and founder of the volunteer organization Niwood Hatsal Iloud Hatsala - an Israeli volunteer organization uniting about 6,500 doctors and paramedics from all over Israel to provide emergency assistance. Eli Beer. As already mentioned, two babies were killed at the hands of terrorists on October 7. The Haaretz source in “Imud Hatsala” said that the volunteer was mistaken.
Participation of journalists in attack on October 7
November 8 Israeli website HonestrePorting Honest Reporting is a non -government organization that "tracks the bias of the media against Israel." She criticized that she was pursuing a journalist: to, criticizing Israel. Honest Reporting also distributed propaganda material that the images of Palestinian victims are manipulated by international opinion. Published an article about six photojournalists from Gaza who collaborated with CNN, Nyt, Associated Press and Reuters. During the attack on October 7, they removed Palestine: OK going through destroyed fences, and fighting on the border with Israel. HonestrePorting hinted that these journalists coordinated their actions with Hamas and knew about the impending attack. The site also distributed a photograph of journalist Hassan Eslaia, embracing the leader Hamas Yahya Synvara. The site did not provide other evidence.
The reconstruction of the actions of Eslaia and other journalists conducted by the Libération does not confirm the HonestrePorting version.
The first posts of Eslaia on October 7 are devoted to missile shelling. The first video, published at 6:41 in the morning, accompanies the description : “ Urgent | Rockets were launched from the gas sector, and sirens sounded in several areas in the south . ” Then Eslaia reposted numerous videos and photographs with evidence of the attack, which Hamas themselves and the Israelis themselves: Ki.
Eslaia showed Libération pictures taken on the roof of his house in Khan-Junis in Gaza at about 7:25 in the morning. The pictures have Esliya himself, that is, an hour after the start of the Hamas attack, he was still in Gaza . Only another hour later, at 8:27, Eslaya began a direct broadcast on Facebook from his phone. He showed how he crossed the Israeli border on foot and saw a burning tank. Two hours passed between the beginning of the attack and the first shots of Eslaia from the border.
The same turned out to be true for other photographers. Shortly after the missile attack, the leaders of Hamas announced the beginning of the operation “Flood al-Axsa”, and the militants began to upload videos to social networks. Journalist: Ki realized that an unprecedented attack began, and rushed to the border with Israel. The pictures published by Reuters were taken 45 minutes after Israel said that the militants crossed the border.
Julie Pace, senior vice president and executive editor Associated Press, noted that " it was a rapid development of events in a very small territory ." The speed with which the photographers were able to get to the border of the gase is explained by small sizes of the sector: 365 square kilometers-a little more than the area of Krasnoyarsk or Rostov-on-Don.
A photograph of Eslaia with the leader Hamas raises questions. It was made in 2018, and Eslaya himself published it with the signature: “ The recent photo of our beloved Abu Ibrahim The leader of Hamas is also known under this name. His full name is Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sryvar. " - in January 2020. As he explained by Libération, the photograph was published for self -promotion, “ to prove the authenticity ” of his reports and demonstrate “ access to the leaders of various Palestinian factions ”. Nevertheless, AP and CNN stopped cooperation with Eslaya.
Despite the lack of evidence, the Israeli government seized the Honestreporting material, and the prime minister’s office accused journalists of complicity of “crimes against humanity”, demanding “ immediately take measures ”. Danny Danon, an Israeli representative at the UN, said that Israel has a list of people who will be “ destroyed ” for participation in the raid and that “photojournalists will be added to this list” .
Meanwhile, Jill Hoffman, the Executive Director of Honestreporting, admitted that he had no evidence that six photographers agreed on their actions with Hamas. Hoffman also recalled that their website is not a news organization. Despite this, the material still occupied a prominent place on the HonestrePorting website and advanced on social networks.
Journalist access: KAZ is currently controlled by Israel. With the exception of short tours with a limited number of reports: K, Israel does not give a journalist: KOA access to the region. At the same time, the IDF forbade them to contact them with Palestine: Kami on the ground and requires the appropriation of reports before publication or broadcasting. Only a reporter: Gaza ki have constant access to the direct lighting of war. Nyt said :
Unreasonable accusations and threats against freelancero: they are threatened and undermine the work that serves public interests
Reuters indicated this. From the beginning of the massive bombing of the GAZ sector , the journalists' protection committee documented the death of at least 70 Palestinian journalists: K (data as of December 31, 2023).
Gaza Ministry of Health
From the first days of the war, the Gaza Ministry of Health informs about the number of dead Palestine: approx. In the Russian -speaking media, the ministry is often called the " Ministry of Health Hamas " or " Hamas controlled by the ministry ", hinting that its numbers cannot be believed.
Hamas really regulates all official messages from the gas sector, but the Gaza Ministry of Health obeys the Palestinian administration (PA) on the western bank. Data on the dead is processed in Ramalla - the actual capital of Palestine. Salaries of a medical worker come from Ramalla to Gaza: TsAM and equipment for hospitals. Cooperation: TS of the Ministry of Health of Gaza claims that Hamas does not dictate to them the figures of losses. Ahmed al-Kylot, director of the Kamal Advan hospital in the north of Gaza, claims : “ Hamas is just one of the factions. Some of us support Fath, some are independent. First of all, we are medical workers: tsy . ”
Western media tend to trust the data of the Gaza Ministry of Health, and there are several reasons for this.
During the past military conflicts of Israel and Gaza, the figures of the ministry have always coincided with the data of international organizations with high accuracy . Among them are the UN, World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Omar Shakir, Director of Human Rights Watch for Israel and Palestine, said that over thirty years of work did not see any evidence that they would be manipulated in numbers. Shakir said about the current war: “ We studied satellite pictures. We saw the number of buildings, and the numbers [losses] correspond to our expectations and what we see in place . ”
The State Department of the United States regularly and without reservations quotes in its annual reports on human rights statistics the Gaza Ministry of Health. She is used by the Israeli Information Center for Intelligence and Terrorism.
Explosion in the hospital al-Ahli
The Gaza Ministry of Health was seriously criticized by Israel after the explosion in Al-Ahli's hospital. Then Hamas laid the guilt for the death of civilians for the Israeli air jacket, and Israel said that the explosion caused a faulty rocket launched by Palestinian militants. The data available today indirectly indicate the Palestinian missile, but there is no direct evidence of this version. The rocket flight of the missile was not confirmed by Israel.
Less than an hour after the images of the explosion appeared on social networks, the Gaza Ministry of Health said that Al-Ahli had died from 200 to 300 people. After half an hour, the number of victims reached 500 . Israel said that no data from the ministry can be trusted . The next day, the ministry reduced the number of victims to 471 . According to American special services, from 100 to 300 people died from the explosion.
US President Joe Biden admitted that he has no confidence in the figures of the ministry. The next day, it released a 200-page report with information about each: those who died in gas (at that time there were about 7,000), including the age, gender and number of the identity certificate of the victim. These data significantly increase confidence in the Gaza Ministry of Health, because they can be verified by the Israeli side. Israel controls the register of the Palestinian population and has information about each: th Palestine: KE.
Already in November, the Biden administration’s assessment changed. Barbara Lif, assistant to the US Secretary of State for the Middle East, said that the total number of dead in the gas sector could be even higher than the figures of the ministry. The indiscriminate nature of the Gaza bombing, for which Joe Biden has already criticized Israel, also indicate a large number of victims among the civilian population.
The data of the Ministry of Health of Gaza are considered reliable precisely because the names of the dead are carefully documented, and the deaths, as a rule, are well known in cohesive Palestinian communities.
Periodic inconsistencies in the data happen, but they are inevitable during the conflict. In the case of the explosion of the Al-Ahli hospital, the exact counting of the victims was also complicated by the fact that the doctor: the nyam had to deal with the bodies of an explosion . Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO program in emergency situations, said that the numbers of the Gaza Ministry of Health may not be quite accurate in real time, but they generally reflect the mortality rate.
Israel officially does not recognize the statistics of the Gaza Ministry of Health, but his own calculations of the dead indirectly confirm it . In early December, Israel announced 5,000 killed militants, also a representative: the Nitsa DRUST claimed that the civilians were dying twice as often . The Israeli media cited sources to the IDF, which consider the number of those who died in Gaza, “declared Hamas” (15,000 in the beginning of December). They also believed that a civilian resident: more were killed more than militants. Another source in the IDF spoke about 20,000 dead in Gaza back in November.
Despite such estimates of the Israeli military, the Gaza Ministry of Health criticizes that he does not divide the victims into combatants and civilian. Meanwhile, according to international human rights organizations, women, children and newborns in gas account for about 67% of all victims . Peaceful inhabitants: Nitsa suffer from bombing, damage to medical institutions, water and power supply systems, mass movement of the population and violations of food and drug supply.
The data of the Ministry of Health are probably underestimated: they do not take into account those who are missing, died at the site of the explosions and are still under the debris. Only those who died inhospitals and ambulance cars fall into the lists of the ministry. Under the wreckage, men more often die: there are more among the journalist: K and the rescuer: NIC. Men more often go to look for water and food for the family, so it is more difficult to find their bodies.
We talk about Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, protests and repression. We believe that now, when dozens of media have closed or ceased to cover the war, access to independent information is more important than ever.
In the first six weeks of the war, hospital morgues throughout gas sent data to the main assembly center of the Ministry of Health at Al-Shifa Hospital. Burens: TSI tracked the names, age and number of identity certificates of the dead and transferred them to the Palestine Ministry of Health in Ramalla.
To date, the Ministry is of great difficulties with timely collection of information due to bombing, ground fighting, disconnecting communication, lack of fuel and destructive infrastructure. The staff of hospitals and the ministry is victims of war. In November, Omar Hussein Ali, director of the Emergency Situations Operational Center in Ramalla, spoke about the fate of four officials who managed the Date Center of the Chief. One died as a result of a airstrike in the hospital, and the other three went missing when the Israeli forces captured the premises as the alleged shelter of Hamas. Accounting for victims every day is becoming more and more difficult.