The Kibbutz of Kfar Aza has been in the news as many media organisations have reported on the aftermath of the Hamas attack. The BBC described in detail how Israeli soldiers spent an entire day “in the ruins recovering bodies of civilians”. Reuters quoted an Israeli reserve soldier who said: “Waves of the attackers, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades, stormed the village...”. The New York Times, meanwhile, pieced together a video put out by eye-witnesses in Sderot that shows indiscriminate firing upon civilians waiting at a bus stop or on the roads. 

Sadly, while bringing to us the grisly visuals of the massacre, news organisations have thrown caution out the window and added fake news to what is already a tense situation.

Late last night, Western media houses were populated with horrifying headlines on how Hamas had purportedly “beheaded 40 babies” during the ongoing violence between Israel and Palestine.

The news seemed to stem from Israeli news channel i24 News but it was swiftly picked up by everyone else. Media houses quoted Israeli soldiers as being distraught and comforting each other by what they’d purportedly seen.

Hours later, the Israeli army itself said there was no information confirming these “allegations” that Hamas had “beheaded babies”.

Meanwhile, how did our Indian brethren fare?

Republic, which has a reporter on the ground in Israel, published a report titled “Disturbing information comes to light, suggesting Hamas beheaded babies”. It said the Israeli soldiers and media had discovered “bodies of babies with their heads cut off”.

Right-wing blog OpIndia latched onto i24 News’s story too on how “Hamas terrorists had mercilessly killed babies…their heads cut off”.

Right-wing website Swarajya published a story with this headline:

It cited a report to say soldiers “found babies with their heads cut off, entire families gunned down in their beds”.

NDTV republished a report from ANI. It cited i24 News as its source and said: “In one of the blood-curdling details from the Hamas attack on Israel, at least 40 babies were killed by the terror group…” Soldiers “arrived already expecting the worst, but the scenes were beyond imagination”.

The Times of India said the Israeli officials and reporters “were left in shock as Hamas terrorists brutally killed 40 babies”. It also quoted an Israeli commander describing the scene in detail and saying that “it was not a war but a massacre”. 

The media house later added quotation marks to the original headline.

Times Now published a report on its website headlined “Israel-Hamas war horror: 40 babies killed by militants, some beheaded”. Citing i24 News, it said Israeli officers and reporters on the scene were “shaken”.  

Fact-checkers have had a busy few days checking fake content circulating on Israel and Palestine. In this case, most media houses used i24 News as a source and ran with the story, without additional reporting or information. 

It’s a dangerous approach at the best of times – and far more so in times of war.

Update on October 12

The fake news saga spinned out today as well, this time thanks to US President Joe Biden.

Biden yesterday said, “I’ve being doing this a long time. I never really thought that I would see – have confirmed – pictures of terrorists beheading children.”

The White House then walked back on his comments. As reported by Washington Post, “A White House spokesperson later clarified that US 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.”

Two news websites have now alleged the source of the “beheaded babies” claim might be an Israeli named David Ben Zion.

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