Israeli Army Denying Confirmation On Hamas Beheading 40 Babies, Fact Check Report

Rozana Spokesman  | Amanat Thaper

News, World

We will update this article on priority if any official confirmation report comes out 

Fact Check Report

RSFC (Team Mohali)- The Ongoing war between Israeli–Palestinian conflict is getting worse day by day and the social media is also getting filled with misleading and fake claims. Recently, a news came out from Israel which shocked everyone. Israel claimed that Hamas terrorists beheaded 40 children in a village in Israel.

Talking to the journalists of "i24NEWS English" and "The Independent", Israeli military personnel said that 40 children's heads have been beheaded by Hamas terrorists at Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel.

-- "i24NEWS English" Report

i24's Nicole Zedek, who was one of the journalists invited by the Israel Defense Forces to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, said she was told by IDF soldiers that they found children in the worst unimaginable conditions.

"Some of the soldiers here told the reporter that when they were passing through the area, they saw bodies of children with their heads cut off and families shot in their beds," the reporter said during a live broadcast on X. 

The Reporter also filmed an IDF deputy commander who confirmed allegations that Hamas had beheaded children, women.

After the news made headlines, the reporter responded on his Twitter account saying "Soldiers told me they believe 40 babies/children were killed. The exact death toll is still unknown as the military continues to go house to house and find more Israeli casualties."

-- "The Independent" Report

“When Hamas came here they cut the heads of women, they cut the heads of children,” says Major David Ben Zion, while making a chopping motion towards his neck. “We saw dead babies, girls”.

The 37-year-old is a reservist deployed here on Saturday to try to evacuate the few survivors of the onslaught. The Independent did not see evidence of his claims.

-- Who spoke about this incident?

CBS News had reported earlier that Yossi Landau, Head of Operations at Israel's volunteer civilian emergency response organisation Zaka, had confirmed to them that he had "personally seen" adults, children, and babies beheaded. i24's Zedek also claimed that around 40 babies and young children had been taken out on gurneys in Kfar Aza. 

"However, the IDF in a statement refused to confirm the numbers or the exact condition in which the bodies were found."

"We cannot confirm any numbers, What happened in Kibbutz Kafr Aza is a massacre in which women, children and the elderly were brutally murdered in the manner of ISIS." - Israeli military to Sky News.”

-- Contrary Claims to this Narrative

Other journalists say that the claims of beheading cannot be verified.

"In a situation like this it's important to separate fact from speculation," said Sky News' Stuart Ramsay, who spoke to two IDF officials.

"At no time did he, or any other major I spoke to, ever mention that Hamas beheaded or killed 40 children or infants," Stewart added.

Stewart added that the IDF had every opportunity to inform the global media of the alleged beheading in Kafr Aza, but neither the killing nor the beheading of 40 children was mentioned to him or his team.

However, he said the events taking place in Kafr Aza were horrific. "The events here are shocking - families being woken up without given warning, mothers and fathers hiding their children in closets, wine cellars and basements, husbands and wives being separated in war etc"

"Talked to hundreds of people, saw no evidence: Journalist".

Another journalist Oren Ziv - who works for the independent news outlet 972 Mag - spoke to "hundreds of people" at the scene.

"During the visit, we found no evidence of this, and neither army spokesmen nor commanders mentioned such incidents," Further Hamas added that the accusations were "propaganda" by Israel and its allies. 

"The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas has rejected false claims promoted by some Western media outlets, such as the killing of children and targeting of civilians by Palestinian freedom fighters," Hamas on its Telegram channel on Wednesday.

Notably, Many unrelated photos and videos regarding the ongoing conflict, have been widely shared on X, Facebook, and other platforms to create panic. "Can say because of specific purpose of aggravating the conflict against the other”

-- US President Biden's 'Irresponsible' Statement

Further, United States (US) President Joe Biden said in a televised address, "I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children."

However, a White House spokesperson told 'The Washington Post' that neither Biden nor any other US official had seen the images of the alleged claim of Hamas murdered 40 Israeli Babies...

From a careful examination of this claim, it is clear that the beheading of 40 children is not clear enough and these things have only been said by estimated Israeli soldiers.

We spoke to Israel's media agency "FakeReporter.Net" regarding the matter. Speaking via the X platform, FakeReporter.Net said, "The issue is that several israeli government officials have said that there were one or more beheaded children or babies, and there have been reports of soldiers who were beheaded (Blinken said this on 12-Oct-2023). People who were in the scene said that there were beheaded babies, but to clarify again, we have no hard evidence that this happened yet, no official report. We are in the dark as anyone. The claim that there were 40 beheaded babies: that's probably an overstatement."

Conclusion - Spokesman has investigated the claim of beheading 40 Israeli children by Hamas. In our investigation, we also spoke to Israeli media agency Fake Reporter about the claim. From our investigation and conversation, it is clear that no official report has came out regarding the viral claim yet and the viral claim has not been confirmed by the Israeli army as well. This claim was only speculated by the few Israeli armymen, but even when the ground journalists present there talked to the local people, no sufficient information has come out regarding the claim.

Disclaimer: We will update this article on priority if any official confirmation report comes out regarding 40 Babies murdered by Hamas.