Re: Why I am disputing Netanyahu’s right to bring up “burned babies” during his speech to Congress.
This is an excerpt mentioning the babies from an exhaustive, investigative Haaretz article April 18 2024 which can be found if you put the following headline into archive ph.
15 Witnesses, Three Confessions, a Pattern of Naked Dead Bodies. All the Evidence of Hamas Rape on October 7
Otmazgin is the person responsible today for speaking on behalf of the organization about members' testimony and reports of evidence of sex crimes in the Hamas attack. He undertook the task after cases were discovered in which ZAKA personnel (as well as rescue forces and IDF officers) spread false rumors. Haaretz reported in December that Yossi Landau, from ZAKA, disseminated two horror stories that never happened – one about 20 bound and burned bodies of children that were supposedly found on a kibbutz, and the other about the body of a pregnant woman he found whose belly had been slit open.
The story of the pregnant woman, which included the distribution of a false video that had been shot at a different time and a different place, was echoed afterward by Israeli spokespersons.
Cochav Elkayam-Levy, for example, who worked intensively to raise awareness of the subject internationally and is being awarded the Israel Prize this year in the field of "social solidarity" (arevut hadadit, in Hebrew), shared the story in interviews and international forums. Pro-Palestinian media, who pounce on every inaccurate report relating to the Hamas sex crimes, went so far as to accuse her of "fraud." A response on behalf of Elkayam-Levy stated, "The case was reported in the name of female experts on the subject in Israel, and we were all relieved to find out that it didn't happen. The case exposed the difficulty of giving a voice to victims in times of war."
This is an excerpt from the December article about the “babies”. The full article can be found by entering this headline into archive ph.
Hamas Committed Documented Atrocities. But a Few False Stories Feed the Deniers
As for Col. Vach’s remarks on the bodies of eight burned babies, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said he “described difficult sights that he saw during his various missions evacuating bodies at the start of the war. The review was conducted in English, and the officer used the word 'babies' to describe a number of children’s bodies that were found. The error was made in good faith and does not mitigate the severity of the atrocities committed."
Atrocities were committed by Hamas. Hamas raped. Hamas slaughtered. Hamas killed children.
But Netanyahu deliberately mislead Congress about babies.