A claim of members of Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas movement, beheading 40 Israeli babies in “Kfra Aza Kibbutz” spread like wildfire on Hebrew and international media outlets and social media.
i24 reporter, Nicole Zedeck, was the first to spread the claim on live TV, saying that an Israeli soldier told her that there were bodies of beheaded babies in the scene where she was reporting, later on, different mainstream media outlets reported the same claim.
The claim: Hamas beheaded 40 babies in “Kfra Aza Kibbutz”
The Correction: It’s not true. No evidence that Hamas behead 40 babies in an Israeli Kibbutz
Kashif verified that the claim was fabricated:
First: Anadolu Agency reported that the Israeli army spokesperson denied the claim, saying that they do not possess any information to confirm it.
Second: Israeli journalist, Oren Ziv, who was taking part in the same media tour along Zedeck, denied this allegation by saying on his account on X:
“I’m getting a lot of questions about the reports of “Hamas beheaded babies” that were published after the media tour in the village. During the tour we didn’t see any evidence of this, and the army spokesperson or commanders also didn’t mention any such incidents. During the tour, journalists were allowed to speak to the hundreds of soldiers on site, without the supervision of the army’s spokesperson team. I24 reporter said she heard it “from soldiers”.
Soldiers I spoke with in Kfar Aza yesterday didn’t mention “beheaded babies”. The army’s spokesperson stated: “We can not confirm at this point… we are aware of the heinous acts Hamas is capable of”. This doesn’t mean that war crimes were not committed. The scene in Kfar Aza was horrific, with dozens of bodies of Israelis murdered in their homes. Sadly, Israel will now use these false claims to escalate the bombing of Gaza, and to justify its war crimes there”.
Third: US President Joe Biden said in his speech to Jewish community leaders yesterday, 11 October 2023: “I never expected that I would see or confirm pictures of terrorists beheading children. I did not expect that”.
However, the Washington Post reported that the spokesperson of the White House later clarified that US officials and President Biden did not in fact see such photos or confirm such reports.
Fourth: The head of the Hebrew department in Kashif and expert on Israeli affairs, Ismat Mansour, confirmed that there were no reports in the Israeli press, including Channel 12, Channel 14, Walla, Ynet, and Haaretz newspaper, about Hamas beheading children, and no cases or testimonies were presented, but about “horrific scenes and killing of civilians”.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on Saturday morning, 7 October 2023, which included the firing of thousands of rockets toward the Gaza enclave and the cities in occupied Palestine, accompanied by a ground entry into the illegal Israeli settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
So far, 1300 Israelis have been killed and around 3,000 were wounded. The Israeli occupation army launched heavy and continuous raids on various areas of the Gaza Strip resulting in the killing of 1354 Palestinians and the wounding of over 6,049.