One of the many gut-wrenching, sickening stories from the Israel-Hamas conflict is accounts of Hamas terrorists beheading Israeli babies.
There are conflicting reports on the authenticity of this story.
A disclaimer before you continue reading:
WLTReport CANNOT independently verify the story as legitimate or false
It’s critical we question every single piece of information on mainstream media and social media platforms.
Israeli-based i24NEWS first reported the story Tuesday.
Correspondent Nicole Zedek took the word of Israeli soldiers with no physical evidence to back the claims.
WATCH:
i24NEWS Correspondent @Nicole_Zedek reports from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a quarter-mile from the Gaza border, and recounts the atrocities that were committed in the small community which remains an active scene as soldiers clear booby traps and recover the bodies of dozens of victims pic.twitter.com/J4ZfWZQYHp
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023
Fox News and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk shared the report without verification of its accuracy.
They found the bodies of 40 Jewish babies, some with their heads cut off.
Pray for Israel. pic.twitter.com/Z2qGZ4l4qT
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 10, 2023
“NOTE: As with all wartime reporting, it’s important to remember there are lots of errors and misinformation swirling. But if it’s confirmed to be true, it’s one of the most atrocious wartime acts you’ll ever hear of,” Kirk said.
“Then why report it as fact if you don’t know it to be true yet? The disclaimer needs to be in the original post that none of this is confirmed,” War Clandestine commented.
Then why report it as fact if you don’t know it to be true yet?
The disclaimer needs to be in the original post that none of this is confirmed.
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) October 10, 2023
French journalist Margot Haddad, a former CNN international news field producer, claims she verified the story.
“That’s it, the information is out. It’s so macabre that no one wanted to reveal it until they had 100% confirmation. Infants and children under 2 years old were beheaded by Hamas in the Kibbutz of Kfar Aza. It is a horror, a massacre. For those asking for the source. They are multiple: Israeli army, internal intelligence service and atrocious images which reached me and which I was able to cross-check. But the best source remains this: courageous journalists from the foreign press who were able to see / agreed to see with their own eyes the bodies in Kfar Aza,” she said (translated).
Ça y est l’information est sortie. C’est si macabre que personne ne voulait la donner avant d’avoir eu confirmation à 100%.
🔺 Des nourrissons, des enfants de moins de 2 ans ont été décapités par le Hamas dans le Kibboutz de Kfar Aza. C’est une horreur, un massacre.
Pour ceux… pic.twitter.com/aEyiLIJUlo
— ✦ Margot Haddad ✦ (@margothaddad) October 10, 2023
However, there are questions about the reliability of Haddad as an unbiased source.
“Margot Haddad, affiliated with National Endowment for Democracy-funded Coda Story, claims to “confirm” beheaded babies story, citing Israeli intelligence, soldiers, other foreign reporters and photos she claimed to have fact checked. Where are the photos, Margot? Or are you lying?” said Redacted correspondent Dan Cohen.
.@margothaddad, affiliated with National Endowment for Democracy-funded Coda Story, claims to “confirm” beheaded babies story, citing Israeli intelligence, soldiers, other foreign reporters and photos she claimed to have fact checked.
Where are the photos, Margot? Or are you… https://t.co/lgqNLK2aah pic.twitter.com/iO5GyJiQmI
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) October 10, 2023
Here’s her affiliation with Coda Story, funded by CIA front NED https://t.co/dGNj52dKLg pic.twitter.com/OgNiLPO9Cz
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) October 10, 2023
The Grayzone reported in 2020:
A shadowy neoconservative website called Coda Story has launched a smear campaign against American journalists who challenge new cold war propaganda. But what this publication has not disclosed is that it is funded by the US government, backed by the European Union, linked to the NATO war alliance, and part of a larger network of regime-change outfits that are bankrolled by Western governments and corporate oligarchs.
Launched in 2016, Coda Story markets itself as a brave counterweight to Chinese and Russian state-backed “disinformation.” This is quite ironic, because the website is itself financed by the regime-change arms of the US government and the European Union, and peddles disinformation of its own in support of Washington’s new cold war on Beijing and Moscow.
“This confirms absolutely nothing. Body bags could be filled with anything. How does this prove that babies were beheaded?” War Clandestine asked.
This confirms absolutely nothing.
Body bags could be filled with anything. How does this prove that babies were beheaded?
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) October 10, 2023
On Wednesday, the debate about the authenticity of this story intensified.
Multiple outlets claimed they confirmed the reports of beheaded babies as legitimate.
CBS News:
@CBSNews learned that Israel body recovery teams have discovered beheaded babies and children in kibbutzim in southern Israel
— Norah O'Donnell 🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) October 10, 2023
CNN:
NEW: The Israeli Prime Minister's office has confirmed the story that babies and toddlers were found with their heads cut off.
The news was shared by CNN reporter Hadas Gold.
"You're dealing with people who would do such atrocities to children, to babies, to toddlers."
"We… pic.twitter.com/MtYb8pWxdl
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 11, 2023
According to Greg Price, the list of confirming outlets includes:
– Local Israeli news I24
– CBS
– CNN
– Times of London
– French news channel LCI
– UK outlet GB News
Outlets with direct eyewitnesses that have reported at least 40 babies were killed by Hamas, with some beheaded, in the Kibbutz of Kfar Aza in the south of Israel:
– Local Israeli news I24
– CBS
– CNN
– Times of London
– French news channel LCI
– UK outlet GB News pic.twitter.com/XbcqLBTq1r— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 10, 2023
Price noted Turkish state-media outlet Anadolu reported that the Israeli army said they have no confirmation regarding the allegations.
Anadolu, a Turkish state media outlet, then reported that an Israeli army spox has not confirmed beheadings yet.
So that's where we currently stand on this story. pic.twitter.com/Pl92VnIAtV
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 10, 2023
On the other hand, Sky News explained they had not seen any evidence of the allegations and asked the Israeli Defense Forces three times to confirm the reports.
.@SkyNews explains why it is not covering the "beheaded babies" claim:
“We have NOT seen the evidence of that…we have asked the IDF 3 TIMES to confirm it…they have NOT YET.."
(FYI: Hamas has never before in its history “beheaded babies”)pic.twitter.com/AQQsLq7sTb
— أبو عمّار (@MaajidNawaz) October 11, 2023
According to The Grayzone, they identified a “key source” of the claim that Hamas terrorists beheaded Israeli babies.
“He is David Ben Zion, an Israeli soldier & extremist settler leader who incited violent riots by calling to ‘wipe out’ Palestinians earlier this year,” The Grayzone wrote.
We have identified a key source of the dubious claim that Palestinian militants beheaded Israeli babies
He is David Ben Zion, an Israeli soldier & extremist settler leader who incited violent riots by calling to "wipe out" Palestinians earlier this year https://t.co/eIjZCxNYV9
— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) October 11, 2023
Per The Grayzone:
An international outcry erupted when Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that Palestinian militants from the besieged Gaza Strip had killed 40 “babies,” and beheaded several of them during an incursion into Kfar Aza, a kibbutz on the Gaza border. President Joseph Biden repeated the inflammatory claim during an October 10 White House Rose Garden address, while networks across the West carried the story without a shred of critical scrutiny.
According to CNN correspondent Nic Robertson, apparently citing Israeli military sources, Palestinian militants carried out, “ISIS-style executions,” in which they were “cutting the heads off of people,” including babies and pets.
The Grayzone has now identified a key source of the claim that Palestinian militants beheaded Israeli babies. He is David Ben Zion, a Deputy Commander of Unit 71 of the Israeli army who also happens to be an extremist settler leader who incited violent riots against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank earlier this year.
In an October 10 interview with reporter Nicole Zedek of the Israeli state-sponsored i24 network, Ben Zion stated, “We walked door to door, we killed a lot of terrorists. They are very bad. They cut heads of children, they cut heads of women. But we are stronger than them.”
🚨 The ONLY source for the "beheaded babies" claim is a pro-genocide member of a radical settler movement
Despite the claim of the discovery of beheaded Jewish babies being reported across the world, we still have no evidence for this except one man's claim: a settler named… pic.twitter.com/CpPBVoLuOM
— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) October 11, 2023
Keith Woods wrote:
The ONLY source for the “beheaded babies” claim is a pro-genocide member of a radical settler movement.
Despite the claim of the discovery of beheaded Jewish babies being reported across the world, we still have no evidence for this except one man’s claim: a settler named David Ben Zion.
Ben Zion is an extreme Zionist who supports the apocalyptic Temple movement. He works for a quasi-governmental Israeli settlement agency, and has endorsed genocide of Palestinians.
Old social media posts from Ben Zion reveals he has a track record of endorsing war crimes and collective punishment against Palestinians. Grayzone reports that In 2016 Ben Zion wrote “The Palestinian people… [are] an enemy…We can’t change their barbaric DNA.”
Not only is Ben Zion the only source for this outlandish claim, but multiple other sources at the site said contradicted his claims.
An Israeli journalist at the scene said no soldiers who inspected the site made any such reports, and an army spokesperson could not offer any corroboration.
Why was this claim broadcast across the mainstream media as fact? We are being fed unverified atrocity propaganda with no critical examination by journalists
Now, Joe Biden claimed to confirm “terrorists beheading children.”
NBC News reports:
President Joe Biden painted a vivid picture of the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war in remarks to Jewish community leaders Wednesday.
“I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” Biden said in broader remarks about his administration’s support for Israel amid its war with Hamas and efforts to free American hostages.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further details about Biden’s remarks. Two senior administration officials said Biden was referring to reports from Israel about beheaded children and cited several media reports of beheadings.
NBC News has not confirmed those reports.
WATCH:
BIDEN: "I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children. I never thought I'd ever, anyway…" pic.twitter.com/VGfgpMwhC1
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 11, 2023
From The Washington Post:
Later Wednesday, Biden expressed dismay over violent imagery coming out of the Israel-Gaza war at a White House event with Jewish leaders. In his remarks, Biden referred to unsubstantiated claims that had circulated widely on social media that Hamas had beheaded Israeli children.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Biden said at the White House. “I never really thought that I would see, have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
A White House spokesperson later clarified that U.S. officials and the president have not seen pictures or confirmed such reports independently. The president based his comments about the alleged atrocities on the claims from Netanyahu’s spokesman and media reports from Israel, according to the White House.
In response to questions from The Post, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson declined to comment on the state of victims’ bodies.
Again, WLTReport CANNOT independently verify whether these reports are legitimate or fake.
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