CLAIM: Hamas did not commit a mass shooting at a rave in Israel, nor did it murder children, nor did it commit rapes.
VERDICT: FALSE. Pro-Palestinian propaganda is trying to spin minor nuances in coverage to defend Hamas.
An Instagram account called “Muslim Daily” (muslim.daily) claims that the “pro-israeli [sic] Zionist propaganda machine” is lying about the mass shooting of Israeli civilians at a rave in southern Israel on Saturday during the Palestinian Hamas terrorist attack, as well as other claims.
The post appears to have been taken down as of Thursday afternoon, but is still apparently available as a reel on Instagram.
The account, which has 670,000 followers, claims in a caption that Israelis are “lying” about the terror attack because “They want to justify their massacres they are committing, and justify the genocide that they have planned of the Palestinians in Gaza.”
In a well-produced video, the video makes three separate claims, each of which is easily debunked.
Three lies currently being told about Palestine.
Number 1: 40 babies were beheaded. This is completely false. No evidence has been provided for this. The claim comes from this journalist during a walk-and-talk. She makes the claim, saying, “I see in the distance more bodies being covered — babies, their heads cut off.” Later in a tweet, however, she admits that she did not see bodies, but heard a soldier talking about it.
It is beyond dispute that Hamas killed many babies and children during the attack, and that some adult victims were beheaded. In addition, there are credible reports that some babies were found decapitated. The claim that “40 babies were beheaded” is not, in fact, what reporter Nicole Zedeck claimed in her report from Kfar Aza, after many bodies had already been removed.
What she said was that she had been told that “40 babies were taken out on gurneys”; and that the number of casualties were unknown because bodies were still being recovered. She also reported that some babies were found with “heads cut off” — perhaps actually beheaded, perhaps decapitated due to the force of the blows that killed them, or the nature of their injuries.
She never made the claim that “40 babies were beheaded,” which is a distortion that does not change the fact that children were brutally killed.
‘About 40 babies were taken out on gurneys… Cribs overturned, strollers left behind, doors left wide open’
Our correspondent @Nicole_Zedek continues to survey the horror scenes left behind in Kibbutz Kfar Aza where Hamas invaded and murdered dozens of Israelis in their homes pic.twitter.com/ZZCwDGkV8z
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023
“The Israeli soldiers discovered babies with heads cut off”
Hamas beheaded babies.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 10, 2023
The claim that some victims were found decapitated was corroborated by other reporters.
We entered the town of Be’eri with the Israeli army. 10% of the community was slaughtered by Hamas. A Major General told us on-camera that people were found without heads. Others with hands tied behind their backs. Don’t look away. pic.twitter.com/1bva9ilLwz
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 11, 2023
Note, too, that Zedeck was reporting from Kfar Aza — a fact that will become important as the third claim by “Muslim Daily” is addressed, below.
Number 2: People were raped. Also false. There is no evidence for this whatsoever.
Israeli officials have confirmed that women were raped during the attack. Moreover, there are also videos — produced by Hamas itself — of a nearly naked woman being trampled on a truck in Gaza; a woman being forced into a jeep while bleeding between her legs; a woman having a hood placed over her head as she is loaded into a truck and driven away; and claims by eyewitnesses that women were raped at the scene of the mass shooting at the rave.
But according to “Muslim Daily,” that didn’t happen, either:
Number 3: 250 people were killed at a concert. False. The only videos we have seen are people running away from a concert. There isn’t a single video or photo suggesting that that 250 people were killed at a concert, or that a mass shooting took place. What we do have, however, are interviews of Israelis claiming that Palestinian resistance fighters were actually kind to them, merciful to them.
This is the most ridiculous claim of all, contradicted by official death totals; extensive media coverage; dozens of interviews with survivors; and video of the attack itself, complete with the sound of gunshots. There is also video of attendees being kidnapped.
The claim that there are “interviews” of Israelis claiming that Palestinian “resistance fighters” (i.e. Hamas terrorists) were “kind” and “merciful” appears as an interview plays in the background. That interview has nothing to do with the concert. It is a channel 12 interview of a resident of the town of Kfar Aza, where Hamas murdered 100 people. The woman being interviewed recounts her own bizarre experience, in which gunmen entered her home and reassured her they would not harm her, then left after two hours. It is in no way representative of the experience of other residents — and, again, has nothing to do with the concert.
The video from “Muslim Daily” concludes:
So why are they lying? It’s called “atrocity propaganda.” They lie about atrocities in order to incite emotions, hatred, and violence. Why? Because they are the ones planning to commit atrocities themselves. To do this, they need to convince you that Palestinians are barbaric animals that kill, torture and behead babies.
This is a complete inversion of the truth. Israel tries to defend civilians — Jewish, Arab, and otherwise — from atrocities by Palestinian terrorists from Hamas. When it responds, it tries to avoid civilian casualties, but is blamed for Palestinian deaths — even when Hamas rockets misfire and land on their own territory, as 20% of rockets did in the last war it started with Israel.
Comments on the “Muslim Daily” post express disbelief with the sheer audacity of the lies told by the video. “The information in this video is false. DO NOT Believe it,” one commenter posted. “There are in fact 260 people that were killed in the party, and a girl from my city is one of them.” Another said: “Hamas published so many videos of the Massacre!!!! Are you crazy?!?!?!”
In one respect, the video is correct: it observes that this is a “war of information.” In that war, pro-Hamas social media accounts are smearing Israel and making sure that anti-Israel activists continue to enforce a silence about the brutality of their cause.
Update: “Muslim Daily” posted a note to its Instagram “story” complaining that its posts were being deleted:
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.